Piece By Piece
Spring House Brewing Company

I am slowly closing out any relationship with this local brewery. I have had too many misdealings with ownership & management to want to give them my CANtinued business, but CANs CANtinue to surface out of the backlog. At some point, The CANQuest (tm) will finally turn the page and close the book on these cats. Until then …

From the CAN: "Red Velvet Cake Stout"; "Skull Series".

I beCAN with a Crack! of the vent, followed by a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. This resulted in a pseudo-cascade that eventually led to the formation of two-plus fingers of fizzy, foamy, soapy, light-brown head with low retention, quickly falling to wisps. At least it had loads of carbonation! Color was Very Dark Brown to Black/Opaque (SRM = >34, < 44) with cola highlights at the edges. Nose smelled odd, almost like Dr. Pepper, with a cherry & anise quality. The site's Style Guide allows for a good bit of leeway, but it also mentions showcasing hops & I was not getting that from/on the nose. Hmm. Mouthfeel was thin & watery. The taste was sharp & sour, nothing like a Stout of any variety that I am familiar with. WTF, over?!? & what did any of it have to do with Red Velvet Cake? It taste like tart/sour cherries & not in a very good way, either. This would have been a drain pour CANdidate had doing so not flown in the face of one of The CANQuest's (tm) basic tenets. Finish was tart-sour, leading to dry, but not worth anyone's time or money. It is CANother example of a crappy local brewery throwing anything & everything at the wall to see what sticks. This one did not stick, it sucked! YMMV.

16oz can into a pint glass. Canned 2/21/19, so 10 months old.

Pours like used motor oil, dk brown to black body. Initial decent tan head fizzes out quickly to a ring, and you can hear the carbonation bubbles popping on the surface. No lacing.

No aroma, nothing good, nothing bad.

Upon tasting, I'm not sure why on the can its described as a red velvet cake stout, because it doesn't taste anything like any of that. Essentially it's a fruity sour, just close the eyes and forget it's black body. Sour cherries is the flavor most forward, and not in a good way. Maybe age hurts this one.

Mouth a little above medium, finish a non too pleasant fruity sourness.

Overall, recently had a farmhouse stout from Jester King, and while I didn't much care for that, it was way better than this, and at least JK described their beer accurately.

$ 3.00 (Including tax)/16 oz can ($ 0.188/oz) from Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA. Reviewed 9/14/19.
“CANNED 2/21/19” stamped on can bottom. Refrigerated at point of sale, stored at 42 degrees and served at 54 degrees in a hand-washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.25.
First pour – Dark brown, hazy.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque. When held to the light, still opaque.
Head – Large (Maximum 7.7 cm, aggressive center pour), dark tan, medium density and fizzy, short duration, diminishing to a four mm crown and a thin rocky cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.5 – Medium strength chocolate fudge, fades away.
Flavor – 3 – Not much flavor at all, mostly just moderately sour – certainly no resemblance to red velvet cake. No alcohol (8.3% ABV) flavor or aroma, no dimethylsulfide, no diacetyl.
Palate – 3 – Medium, watery, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3. Not good.

Stout inspired by red velvet cake drank at the brewery itself in the Lancaster, PA area. Wasn't overly sweet at all, a bit thin in the pour compared to others.

" Red Velvet Cake Stout"

A lot of mixed reviews on this (untapped) was intrigued by the cover art consisting of a goat deity cutting a red velvet cake enough for smaller demons. Pours a rather deep dark black but the foam is almost soda like fizzing out before I can comment how deep dark opaque it is. Smell and taste are actually quite lackluster sure the smell has muted coffee and some chocolate but where is the vanilla sweetness or at least creamy body? Kind of like a muted bland coffee stout but I give it some props it is rather easy to finish even though a bit warm. Body is quite light to medium which works in the beer to improve drink ability. Overall this beer is definitely a pass not much cake or at least vanilla to justify the name but a fairly drinkable breakfast stout if you want to have cake in the morning like I did!