Irish Breakfast
10 Barrel Brewing Co.

great morning or hangover beer, new one (to me anyway) at the boise location, which i should visit way more than i do. classic example of the style, simple in the right ways, layered on the malt side, not as dry as the best of these, and with a little less of that old world irish ale yeast fermentation, but its tidy and very professionally done, as the beer always is in here. high shine, nitro looking head, creamy off white, near black, decent body it looks like. the nose is roasty and earthy and simple, on the dry side with a little raisin, dark chocolate, and espresso, no overly complex but it doesnt need to be, notable absence of much middle malt richness, i like that in this style, almost more english than irish on the yeast, but its near neutral. some decent bitterness, faint smoke. the flavor follows, pretty deep roast but balance is here too, cocoa, leather, char, and light nuttiness. the flavor is real nice but the texture isnt quite what it could be, some light late sweetness but really i think this was meant for nitro and then they took out their nitro taps, or something like that, so it seems a little less excited than i want it to, and its not the full nitro experience even if the keg was nitrogenated, not a huge issue this still has some body and is smooth and easy to drink. a nice start to curing my hangover, pretty true to style irish stout, coffee-esque linger on the palate at the end is pleasant.