Mini Growler
Westbrook Brewing Co.

Aged in the bottle for a couple of years. Very dark appearance with slight tan head that dissipates quickly. Aroma is a slightly sweet malt. Taste is a very smooth slightly sweet malt that is a little thin.

Reviewed from notes. Purchased locally on 5/11/16. I believe the label indicated bottling date of 3/24/16. Consumed on 12/31/19. Poured from the 22 oz. bottle into an El Catador Barrel-Aged glass.

A: Very dark brown to nearly black, and opaque. Forms a half-finger of tan head with good retention despite a minimum of visible carbonation.

S: Dark roasted malts, some dark sticky fruit. Earthy tobacco, the bitterest of baker’s chocolate. Very roasty, but not unappealing on the nose.

T: Heavily roasted malts, some char and old dry tobacco. Dark fruits – prunes, some raisins, and some dark cherries. Some very dark chocolate, and then the burnt caramel, dry tobacco, and roasty malts with some alcohol sweetness in the hang.

M: Medium body - sticky mouthfeel but a little on the thin side for a RIS. Plenty of booziness but not overdone. Low carbonation sensation, but not flat.

O: This just wasn't my favorite. Very roasty – and I think overly roasty – and that doesn’t mesh well with the amount of dark fruity esters (from the yeast?) in the RIS. As it warms, there is a little more caramel sweetness which helps balance the bitterness. But this really wasn't particularly good.

Don't remember where I got this, and obvious yeast crud inside the cap and around the neck of the bottle, no date

Pours thick and oily, basically pitch black inky with long legs, no head

Nose dark roasty malts, charred malt, very dark roasty dark chocolate, little fudgey, mild creamy milk chocolate and big cookie dough and baking spices, turning acidic and acrid late

Taste thick oily dark malts, roasty char, super dark chocolate, cocoa, little fudgey, dry powdered cocoa and powdered milk, no fruits, dark roasted charred coffee, medium bitterness mostly from malts, gets a little acrid, light alcohol

Mouth is fuller bod, rich creamy oily viscous, low carb, some warming alcohol

Overall pretty good, I prefer dark fruits in a RIS, and this got a bit too dry and charred roasty, also very low carb, but good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been aging for two years and finally had it. Pours a dark cola brown with almost no head to speak of. It sits pretty Black In the glass. When the beer was cold, it smelled almost like brandy. Once it warmed all you got was roast and alcohol; really not much nuance. Taste however is pretty great. Kind of sweet with some fruitish notes and a mild coffee like back end. Really delicious. It feels pretty normal with very mild almost non existent carbonation as it should be. Overall this is a rather delicious ris.

 

 

Boy, this is one smoky stout.

The appearance is dark, with tan head and lacing. The smell is modest, considering how big the taste is. As for taste, there's a lot going on here. There's the usual stout flavor profile, plenty roasty and a bit hoppy. Then there's maple, tobacco, and a lot of smoke. Quite interesting, and not exactly like any other stout I can think of.