Vampire Blues
Brouwerij West

Found a 4-pack of these dated 11/24/21. Apparently this is the same batch tasted by our friends mactrail and Bitterbill. At over 5 years, this is officially the oldest beer I've had so far.

Awesome can art. Pours with a dark, but thin body, and a short-lived cocoa colored head. Some nice lacing, not a lot.

Smells like an Irish dry stout. Strong notes of semi-sweet chocolate, dark roast coffee, roasted malt, black olives and whole wheat toast. Subtle hits of prune, black currant, hazelnut, kalamata and charcoal.

Tastes very dry and smooth. 5 years old and still kicking the pants off of a fresh Guinness. Definitely as good as any Irish dry stout I've ever had. Apparently these age pretty well.

Mouthfeel is super light and dry. Crushable.

The only downside I can see to this being in a fridge for 5 years is that it definitely had a minimal hop presence and the carbonation may have been a touch light. That said, it was still very good.

84 B

Canned November 24th 2021, from Beer Drop.

It pours black with an inch of tannish foam and does well with the lacing.

Smells strongly of roasted malt, dark chocolate, coffee, quite a bitter nose.

The taste is bitter, roasty, perhaps some Oatmeal, coffee, dark chocolate. Pretty tasty.

Medium mouthfeel, low carbonation.

Good.

Look: Side pour from a pint can refrigerated temperature - Thick black pour with heavy foam risen to the surface. Quickly dissolves leaving behind lacing that sticks to the glass like molasses to the glass.
Smell: Getting aromas of malts, more malt heavy then anything, followed by chocolate maybe coffee.
Taste: Tasting chocolate with some heavy malts. Feels like a normal stout to me to be honest.
Feel: Light to medium bodied beer. Not much carbonation
Overall: Not bad, It's actually quite good. I wasn't expecting it to be as good but it's actually really decent. I'll buy again in the near future.

 

I don't know if this is actually an Irish style Stout, I don't think it's near as dry as the black low-ABV versions more common. BW says this one is 5.5 percent and calls it a "Dry stout brewed with rye and roasted barley." Some burnt taste along with the warm malt and even a dose of caramel.

Overall this is one to renew my somewhat lagging interest in Stouts. It's well balanced between dark and sweet malt, not overly bitter, and pleasingly complex. From the 16 oz can purchased at Bine & Vine. Dated 11/24/21 on the bottom.