Girl Stout Cookie
New Orleans Lager & Ale Brewing Company (NOLA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 oz can poured into a shaker pint.

Appearance
Near black. Short brown head.

Nose
Chocolate, vanilla, espresso, earth, and slight mint.

Taste
Milk chocolate and Thin Mint cookies. Caramel and slight espresso. Smooth earthy hoppiness with with a lingering roastiness.

Mouthfeel
Light bodied, silky, smooth, and refreshing.

Overall
This stuff is dope! I appreciate the lighter body and restrained mintiness.

Poured into a pint glass. Black color. One-finger brown head which lingers. Faint scent of mint. Very strong roasted, chocolate malt flavor accentuated by mint notes and a touch of bitter hops. I think the hops are a bit strong for the style. Heavy body with a robust carbonation. Mint lingers for quite a while.

 

 

 

Currently #64 in the Top Rated Louisiana Beers List.

CAN: 16 fl oz pull-tab with a green label art (evoking the thin mint/girl scout cookie vibe). Best by: 03/15/20 (from bottom of can). Ran me $11.99 USD plus tax for a 4 pack (~$3 a can) at a beer store in New Orleans, LA.

"Milk stout with chocolate & mint." 6.8% ABV.

So the fear is it'll be too sweet, right? A milk stout with chocolate? Let's find out...

APPEARANCE: Head is khaki, ~4cm in height, and lasts ~6 minutes. Body is a predictable opaque black.

AROMA: Artificial mint extract (think dollar store imitation mint that isn't recognizably peppermint or spearmint). Chocolate malt. Dark malt sweetness. I don't detect actual chocolate (e.g. cacao, cocoa nibs, bean, etc.). Lactose sugar is there when I know to look for it, but honestly this aroma exudes artificiality to such extent that in a blind taste test I doubt I'd find lactose sugar behind the generic dark malt sweetness this aroma projects.

No hop aromatics. No yeast aromatics. Suggests an artificial thin beer that doesn't really deliver on its premise. The mint doesn't seem authentic or adequately emphasized, nor does the chocolate. Seems like a generic milk stout that's worse than Left Hand's and has some artificial flavours tossed in.

Aromatic intensity is average.

TASTE & TEXTURE: I've had beers that really evoke genuine spearmint or peppermint, and this definitely is not one of them. Has an artificial generic mint flavour that's certainly noticeable, but it seems like they just dumped in artificial mint flavoring and called it a day. Chocolate malt is obvious but I don't get rich cacao nibs or anything that would indicate actual chocolate (at least there's no Hershey's syrup or the like).

Dark malt sweetness is the main flavour here, with lactose sugar unnecessarily amplifying perceived sweetness. Not a cloying beer, but certainly oversweet given the lack of any roasted barley or hop-derived balancing bitterness.

Simple, tame, shallow, and dull, lacking pizzazz. And frankly I'd forgive it if it really tasted like the girl scout cookie it's obviously imitating, but it doesn't even deliver on that front - and in that sense, it fundamentally fails as an execution of the brewers' vision.

Smooth, wet, medium-bodied, well-carbonated, unrefreshing, filling, a bit thick/hefty, and approachable inasmuch as its ABV isn't noticeable. Not oily, gushed, hot, harsh, astringent, or scratchy.

OVERALL: A gimmick beer that doesn't even deliver on its gimmick, and an artificial tasting beer that isn't anywhere near as competent a milk stout as Left Hand's widely available (and obviously superior) expression of the style. Compared to regionally strong expressions of the style (e.g. Lakewood's Temptress in neighboring Texas), it's a joke.

Not a beer I'd buy again, but it isn't the chore to drink some mint beers can be. I'll finish off my 4 pack without complaint, but it's wanting.

Low C / AVERAGE

 

 

 

 

This is the perfect interpretation of a Thin Mint in beer form. It cleanly expresses mint without shredding the palate, and has a smooth lightly dark chocolate body that also happens to be refreshing in the New Orleans heat. Yum!