Apple-achian Pie Stout
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

 

 

Poured 12 oz bottle into snifter glass. 8% ABV.

Appearance- Nearly coal black with a light brown fine bubbled head. Opaque.

Smell- Apple dominates, some chocoalte, caramel, and molasses in the background.

Taste- Molasses sweetness, almost candy like. Apple picks up fast and noticeably. Evident of real apple flavoring. Chocolate as well, turning quite smoky towards the finish. Finishes semi bitter, smoky, with the apple flavoring still lingering.

Mouthfeel- Heavy in body with medium carbonation.

Overall- A different stout to be had for sure. The apple flavoring really mixes it up. I was not expecting such flavorful apple here. Very smoky too for those who like smoky stouts. Think of a chocolate covered smoked apple. Sums up this beer. A sipper, but a good one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deep, dark in color(chocolate brown) with decent head and lacing. Aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg. Flavor is ok with hints of pumpkin spice and overripe apples and some strong malts. Finish is a little too strong with dry soice but overall a decent beer.

Poured from a 12 oz. bottled that I got in a variety pack. Date was smudged but all the other brews in the pack were late May so I am assuming this was as well.

Poured a nice dark coffee brown with a thin tan head. Smelled like the roasted dark malty smell you typically find in stouts with a hint of cinnamon. I was disappointed that I did not detect the baked apple scent some of the other reviewers picked up.

Still it was a nice tasting beer, I got the roasted coffee malt typical of a stout with a cinnamon or molasses mid palate.

Full bodied and low carbonation.

Was enjoyable though I was hoping for a stronger 'pie' taste. Still a good offering and would certainly recommend.

Last bottle from the variety pack; bottle date is smudged but it was earlier this summer and it's an 8% ABV stout so I figure a couple more months of age won't make much of a difference. XD

Pours a dark cola-like brown, then settles into something pretty close to black once in the glass, just a bit of a dark brown visible in the thinner parts of the glass. Shining a light through only works in these thinner parts, and reveals a dark red-brown color and some rising bubbles. Somewhat thin but nice-looking layer of tan foam on top when first poured, shrinking to a thin cap within a couple minutes with a few thicker/thinner spots spread around.

Smell is definitely of apple-pie type spices -- cinnamon is in there for sure, and I get a bit of a baked apple sort of thing hanging out in the background behind that. The spices definitely overpower most everything else on the smell, though -- I can't really detect any roasty/dark malt type "stouty" smells at all. Basically: it smells pretty nice, but way more apple pie than stout. Maybe that will change as it warms?

Flavor is, fortunately, not as overwhelmed by the spices as the smell. There's a nice roastiness present that confirms that this is indeed a stout, with a very coffee-like bit in the aftertaste immediately after swallowing. The apple-pie spices are definitely still present, but not overpowering -- in fact the roasted malt/coffee flavors are much more noticeable on the first sip. I think this beer has mellowed out a bit with a couple extra months of age in my fridge -- I remember it being almost excessively spiced the first time I had it, and these two bottles were from the same batch and everything. A baked-apple-like fruitiness is coming up in burps, along with some of the spices. On the second sip, I'm noticing that it leans heavily toward the apple/cinnamon end of things at the start of a sip, and then the roasty coffee-like malt flavors come in to balance things out afterward. A bit of an almost "dry leaves" sort of flavor popping in on the end now. This was in a summer variety pack but it's definitely making me think of fall now! Everything blends together pretty nicely. I'm definitely enjoying this more than the first bottle. The spices do seem to overwhelm the roasty malt a bit more as I get near the end of the glass, but it's possible I'm just drinking a little too quickly and the spice flavors are building up in my mouth more over time.

Mouthfeel is also nicer than I remember it being the first time around. Before it seemed a lot fizzier and thinner than I expected and that combined with the spices made it seem almost harsh; this time, I'm finding myself able to drink pretty big "sips" at a time considering that it's an 8% ABV stout *and* a spiced beer. It's still maybe just a little fizzier than I'd like, but not to an unpleasant degree, and there's a pretty nice thickness to the texture of it -- it's not super thick like some of the bigger stouts but enough to be noticeable. Just a teeny little bit of alcohol warmth noticeable in the mouth every now and then, but with all the cinnamon going around it may not be entirely alcohol warmth at all, maybe a mix of the two.

Overall -- a pretty tasty beer that I was pleasantly surprised by this time around, definitely much more suited to a cooler "starting to seem like fall" night compared to the unbearably hot early/mid summer days that were around when the variety pack it featured in was released.

Grabbed this as one of a pick-6.
Poured from a bottle into a pint glass.

I was worried that this might be candy sweet. Or gimmicky. You know, all about some weird, fake-tasting flavor combo that just masks a sad base beer and leaves you asking: "Why? Just why?"

Boy am I relieved.

This is a deep, dark, opaque stout. Tan head and lacing.

All the great roasty-malty goodness is there and dominant in the nose, along with a subtle, cinnamon-like spice. There is a slight sweetness as well, and a fleeting fruity tease.

Tastes like a stout. A good one. Part char, part roasty malt, park dark caramelized sugars...but never too sweet. Still some cinnamon spice influence. Oh, and there's the apple hint. Like standing a few yards away from a wooden crate of orchard-fresh apples. And it's gone. Always subtle and never overpowering. I'm left with burnt sugar and a lingering reminder of the 8% ABV.

Feels full bodied and low/moderately carbonated.

 

 

 

 

This is a beer that does not know what to be... Sour? Fruity? Spiced beer? Not quite an imperial stout.. not boozy enough. Sort of like a Belgian-beer-meets-American-Stout. Not well done.