State Street Stout
Santa Barbara Brewing Company

Nitro-tap at Santa Barbara Brewing Company, Santa Barbara, CA

A: The beer is very dark red in color (black when viewed from afar). It poured with a quarter finger high creamy beige head that has excellent retention properties and consistently covered the surface.
S: Light aromas of roasted dark malts are present in the nose along with some hints of coffee.
T: The taste has flavors of chocolate malts and sone hints of coffee beans.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied, airy, and very smooth on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation. The finish is a bit watery.
O: This stout is easy to drink and has nice chocolate flavors—it can be considered session able. The nitrogen makes the mouthfeel very smooth.

Serving type: nitro-tap

 

 

 

 

 

On-tap at SBBC

Almost black in color with a creamy tan head. Roasted malt, coffee, and mild chocolate are the primary aromas to the beer. There's a subtle earthy hop aroma and a mild cocoa powder note. The flavor is a bit on the watery side. Mildly bitter with roasted malt, coffee, cocoa, and earthy hops. There's a fair amount of dark chocolate character to it as well. Watery feel on the tongue.

Served on-draught into a pilsner glass at Santa Barbara Brewing Co. Reviewed from notes. Stouts are me favourite, so expectations were high.

A: Pours a one finger head of nice tan colour, great cream, good thickness, and good retention. Colour is a standard solid black; nontransparent. It's an appealing appearance all around.

Sm: Roasted barley, cream, coffee, and light chocolate. Milk is also present, but I don't detect any oats. A moderate strength aroma.

T: Light chocolate. Hardly any roast, which is a shame. It's milky and nice, but there's not enough cream (particularly on the open). The oats come through, but not as much as I'd like. Very light coffee is detectable. It'd be complex if it invested more faith in its flavours. If you're going to disregard the dry subtle quality of a roasted barley foundation in favour of the smoothness of rolling oats, then at least commit to your choices. It's balanced decently all around, but too timid to be truly good.

Mf: Smooth and wet, with some thickness. It suits the flavours alright. It would be better sans oats, with dryness and coarseness to bring out the flavours.

Dr: Drinkable but limited in quality. This isn't built either as an Irish Dry or an Oatmeal stout, and tries to middle in-between. It ultimately fails, but is still an enjoyable afternoon beer, albeit extremely light in ABV.

 

Although marked "retired," I just had this in June 2011 at the brewpub.

This was served on nitro tap even though there was no mention by the server or on the menu, etc., that it would be nitro. It was also served far too cold, but even as I let it warm, the character did not improve.

This is black, big, creamy tan head lasting with some foamy lace – a typical nitro-tap appearance.

Aroma is almost non-existent, and exceedingly simple, being a very faint grassy roastiness.

Taste is a faint hint of chocolate up front, but fleeting and soon vanishing never to return. Then, it has only a vague,, exceedingly faint coffee/roasted malt element that is barely discernable. It actually has almost no character or flavour at all and is far more bland than the bland, simple, “Oktoberfest.” This is utterly pointless and is barely discernable as a beer.

Draught at the brewpub. Black with a small tan head. Nutty, coffee, and cat piss aroma is a little strange. Strong roasted coffee flavor with lots of roasted bitterness. Finishes dry. Watery and pretty dead palate. A step up from guinness in the dry stout area, but still not that great.

Draft at brewery, 02/18/08.

Black hue with some traces of foam.

Simcoe hops impart that cat piss aroma. In a stout?

Thin, watery mouthfeel. Some roasted coffee bitterness that quickly vanishes.

That's it? That's the whole beer? Luckily, I only ordered a taster. My friend got stuck with a pint, which he could not finish.

If this were a Stout my taste buds were majorly screwed up today. This thing was sooo watery and thin. Bad Bad Bad. It had no carbo, no head, not much of a nose and the watery taste was a bit of espresso and roasted malts. This beer had no character and no malt bakbone. A slight dryness, driest watery beer ever. Stay away from this beer and spend your money on something else.

Appearance: Good, classic stout appearance - nice and dark with a nice tan head.

Smell: Decent roasted malt smell - although I can't remember the smell quite so well.

Taste: Watery, with only a bit of espresso and roasted malt characteristics. Kind of like a lighter version of Guinness (!)

Mouthfeel: Just too thin and watery. This would be a satisfying beer if it had any body whatsoever.

Drinkability: While you could easily drink tons of this, it is also boring, thus the lower drinkability score.

Overall, this is just a boring beer. One of the least interesting stouts I've ever had. Most porters I've had have more body than this.

For espresso lovers.

A - Black body with a good ol' long lasting tan head.
S - Somewhat strong espresso scent.
T - Very chalky espresso flavor. Bit watery though. Like drinking a glass of water with a couple of Hersey's fun size dark chocolates mixed in.
M - Medium mouthfeel.
D - Very drinkable, but only if you like strong coffee.