Parlor Trick
Skookum Brewery

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a thin brown head that dissipates to sparse patches with slight lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, cocoa, faint fruit, boozy. Flavor is dark toasted malt, milk chocolate, mild strawberry and vanilla. Medium bodied with light creaminess. This does hit the mark of presenting the three flavors of Neapolitan ice cream. Chocolate is the dominant flavor (as it is perhaps in the ice cream too), with light strawberry and vanilla, which is the right amount in a stout were either can quickly become unbalanced. Overall a little mellow, but has a good stout base and is good just as an imperial stout. Well named, these pastry stout are kind of a parlor trick and it's surprising how many turn out resembling what they profess. Interesting, but not exciting.