Gurglin' Sturgeon Stout
Kennebec Brewing Company, Inc.

Starts off great with a very nice jet black pour into a Guinness pint glass with a well form 1 1/2 finger almond colored head that settles into a soapy-like mass leaving broken rings of lace as it settled.Now it begins to go downhill the aromas are ok mildly roasty with hints of roasted red pepper and vanilla and a touch of wood,somewhat bland upfront on the palate notes of wood and coffee the lingering odd aftertaste kinda kills the beer for me its kinda earthy and woody with an odd kind of burnt metallic flavor that is unpleasant really sticks around its pungeant and almost makes me wanna dump this beer,oh what a shame.

Gurglin' Sturgeon Stout pours a deep brown/black with a nice creamy brown head that lingers. The aroma is roasty malts, with a slightly sour twinge to it. The flavor is dry roasted and burnt malts, a little too astringent with no real sweetness to back it up. There is a slight hop bitterness, as well as an almost waxy flavor in the aftertaste that I know all too well. I had a few batches of homebrew that share this flavor, my best guess was fermentation temps being too warm. Overall this is a decent stout, its light bodied like guinness but with much more flavor. At $3.50 a bomber, it's quite reasonably priced.

Pours a one-finger light tan head that fades quickly leaving some lace. Black with mahogany highlights. Roasted coffee nose. Light carbonation and heavy bodied. Flavor is roasted coffee with some bitterness in finish. $3.50 for a 22oz bottle from Tully's Beer & Wine Wells, Me.

Presentation: 22oz bottle in a classic Guinness style flared pint glass

BAside: cool bottle label

Poured loose and thin. Again, as with all the beers Kennebec produces, an initial sour quality on the nose. However, the sour is more reminiscent of sour cherries, along with the presence of some rather dry malts, faint dark chocolate, an excuse of some vanilla, barely sweet. With some bloom the nose opens up more. The head was wild - easily 2 fat fingers of tight, thick, sculpted dirty ivory foam with some pretty good retention, eventually settling to a finger's worth of the same with some feeble lace. Color is great - a deep, ruddy, warm vintage port hue, the deepest, darkest cranberry imaginable that is almost opaque & umber to the casual glance. Visually a very attractive beer.

Its thin & bitter, dry with old coffee, a peep of some baking chocolate. The bitterness, aside from the coffee aspect, comes from some raspy hops, the sweetness is bittersweet at best with some stale caramel. This has a definite dryness to it that reminds me of draft Guinness, its more Dry Stout than anything else.

It grows sharper & more bitter on the palate, the coffee getting silty & more burnt like that last slug out of your morning Joe, especially if you were the one who emptied the pot. Malts are flat & gray, slightly drier with a unusually rough crunch to it, and that telltale Kennebec sourness rises up.

Unlike with most Stouts, this is slipping fast with warmth as opposed to gaining. Its getting thinner, and eventually finishes bitter, tart, mildly chalky and faintly slated with a filmy, chewy, very dry bitter aftertaste.

This is an odd call. Its not bad, nor is it good. It is rather dry and initially with a proper, but not overly, chill to it it was decent. But it did slip fast once it warmed up, which was a bummer. I would drink it again if offered, but only if other options weren't available & would most likely pass on getting more myself. If you like dry, bitter stouts with a tartness to them, check it out, otherwise there are far, far better examples easily found.

Tully's new space now has KBC, so I bought all their beers to try. This isn't very good. Black, thin head. A coffee, roasted malt aroma, pretty muted. Burnt coffee taste, pretty unpleasant. Very thin mouthfeel, not what I'd expect from a stout. I won't try this again.

From a 22oz bomber

Pours dark brown with a scant tan head. Smell is astringent and malty and unpleasantly bitter.

Taste is terrible. unpleasantly astringent and bitter, like infected homebrew. Bad, bad, bad.

Terrible tasting beer.

I am sure this is a bad bottle. However, I bought this bottle in Gardiner (not at the brewery but not more than two miles away). It was refrigerated. I only bought it 4 days ago. Alot of factors have been removed so either the place I bought it from treats their beer horribly (possible) or there is a real need for quality control at the brewery. I was really looking forward to trying this beer since I am a big fan of their Cream Ale but it was an experience ruined. I will try again when I have a couple extra bucks but that may be awhile.

Black in the core, feathering out to dark brown dense color on the edges. The head produced a dense whipped cream texture; Little if any nose. The head is misleading- the flavor of this stout is rather one dimensional. I can't characterize the flavor profile- a bit of ale; very mild ale flavor, a tad of malt; but nothing I expect from a stout; no subtle flavor facets; fast finish- the beer just dissapears on the palate; although this beer produced a creamy mouthfeel. To summarize, I think it's a wimpy flavored stout- not just mild, but wimpy-- alas the cream like head couldn't redeem this stout.

22oz bomber pours almost opaque black with a short lived off-white head.

Smells of molasses and weakly of coffee. The taste is rather weak. A barely sweet beggining with nothing in the middle leads to a dry hop finish. The flavor of this brew is just washed out. It makes the carbonation seem like soda because there is little there to support it. I guess you could make the case that this is more of a porter, but it'd still be a weak flavorless porter.

Throw this fish back.

Edit 1/25/04: I went back and re-tried this beer. Big mistake, it was worse than before. Run away from this beer.

I bought this directly at the brewery in Gardiner, ME. Very cool label.

Coffee black in color with a very small off white head, even after an aggresive pour. The smell is sweet coffee, malt and just a hint of chocolate. The first thing you notice is the thin body. There is no real substanance there. The taste is good, just not great. Sweet in the beginning and dry in the end.

If someone gave me this beer in a glass with no label and asked me what it was, I would say a Porter. (Which isn't a bad thing)

The beer pours a nearly opaque black, with a little reddish light shining through on the bottom of the glass. A tight, thick, khaki head floats atop. Multi sized bubbles float in the foam. Great head retention, with some blobs of lace sticking to the glass.
Aroma is very roasty, with tons of dark roasted coffee. Some chocolate, with estery dark fruit. Hints of red grape, currant, and plum. Some doughy yeast aroma, and a mild herbal hoppiness peeking in from the back.
The flavor is kind of thin, even for a stout. The flavor starts out thin, with very light roasted malt flavor in the beginning, and really picking up in the middle. Very pronounced black coffee taste, lingering all the way through and into the aftertaste. Perhaps a touch of wheat malt. Some mild baker's chocolate about 3/4 through, with some light estery flavor. Plum and currant. The beer finishes quite dry, with a very light herbal hopping at the end. Body is very light, with fluffy, moderate carbonation. Some yeasty powderiness in the aftertaste, with a lingering roasty bittersweetness.
Pretty tasty, with great balance and well done malts. If it wasn't for the lack of flavor right in the beginning, this would be a terrific stout.

This is by far one of the favorites this year for a cold weather heavy warmer. Beautiful deep dark color with a foamy tan head. The aroma of dark malts gives way to a smoky flavor with hints of the roast within. Very tasty and filling.

A solid dry-stout. Black colour with a very-brown head that slowly gives way to a hefty lace. The nose is predominantly of the roasted malt type. Traditional dry stout flavors of dark, roasted malts. Very smooth medium-heavy body with fine carbonation.

Nothing extrordinary, but a very solid dry stout.
-Cheers!