Woody
Crystal Springs Brewing Company

 

I got a can of this beer from my bestie from Charlotte, NC whom got it from a beer of the month club pack. It poured an opaque dark with tan head that is leaving some lace. The scent had chocolate notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with salted chocolate presence. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with good carbonation. Overall it is a great beer.

Black coffee dark with a sparse amount of head. The nose is fruity like strawberries and cherries with dark chocolate and hints of coffee and English muffins. Toasted malts carry the end. The taste is coffee, Nestle's crunch bar, sea water as from a bivalve, a bitterness like bakers chocolate, earthiness. This is thinner than expected, kind of disappointing. The salt gives this a weird dryness. Chocolate and coffee carry this. I would call this an average beer. (Found my old notes on this one)

 

 

APPEARANCE: Jet black beer pours from this pretty purple can. Holding the iPhone flashlight up to it reveals that intense light does not penetrate the width of the tulip glass. An off-white head foams up for 20-30 seconds before collapsing into a splotchy film of tiny bubbles with one rough patch of big bubbles to provide some terrain over about a quarter of the surface. The lacing starts with the collapsed foam and creates a very consistent, well covered backdrop to the black beer as the glass drains.

SMELL: Not as much chocolate as expected, but a lot of roasted coffee and almonds. Intense too.

TASTE: Despite the pretty straight forward nose here, the pallet has a lot going on. The roasted notes are front and center, but they're complimented by bitter, dark chocolate flavors and a lightly salted finish.

MOUTHFEEL: Comparing this beer to all beers, there is some sweetness. Comparing it to almost any other stout and it's dry as a bone. The body is medium, maybe leaning light. Carbonation isn't overwhelming, but it's sufficient, especially for the style, as it provide a pleasant sparkle on the way down.

OVERALL: While I didn't agree with the can about the level of sweetness, I do agree that it's a "very drinkable and enjoyable beer". At 6.7% with 49 IBU, Woody's is impressively drinkable. In a lot of ways, this captures Colorado Winter in a can...hearty and challenging, but lighter and easier than most others.

L: Dark, almost black, with a tan colored head, that quickly dissipated. Minimal lacing.
S: Dark roasted malts, a bit of bittersweet chocolate. A bit of earthy, woody hops.
T: a tiny bit of salt in the front of the palate, bittersweet chocolate, dark roasts, and a bit of lingering earthy hop bitterness.
F: medium bodied...not as smooth or rich as I would have hoped for.
O: It’s a drinkable, but not by any means impressive stout. There’s nothing that really seperates this one from any other number of American stouts.

a salted chocolate stout that they are serving on nitro in their taproom. its not quite all the way honed in, but its a nice beer. i think their nitro system and process needs a tweak, the beer takes about 5 or 8 minutes to pour, all foam from the tap, followed by a long settling process before they can top it off, but yet it ends up almost totally flat in the glass. its weird, like its just pushed with nitrogen but not actually nitrogenated in the keg. the flavors of this near black beauty are nice though. the chocolate notes are very forward in this, but its not the least bit sweet, which i think is a real success. its a dark or bakers type chocolate, far more raw and earthy and bitter than it is creamy or desserty. the salt is more like minerals in this, accenting the dark grain and the chocolate without really making this salty in any significant way, but i like what it adds. notes of burnt wood and tobacco are in here too, some strong coffee as well, bitter like cray in the finish, and the salt helps dry it out at the end too, love the back half of this! i wish the nitro stayed with it, its not as creamy feeling from the nitro as it could be, but the body is sturdy and it goes down very smooth. a few minor adjustments away from amazing. really well done beer, drinkable too for something with chocolate. creative recipe with nice execution. these guys are underrated overall i reckon...