Check Raise
Idle Hands Craft Ales

 

The beer looks good. It pours inky and thick black out of the can. The smell is burnt malts, some dark caramel which gets a bit more pronounced as the beer warms. The taste from the first is off putting because it has way too much hop for a stout. There is a strong dark, bittering chocolate profile, fairly thick and oily in the glass and ultimately medium to full bodied. I just can't get beyond this much hop profile in a stout. Not my kind of stout at all. Letting the beer warm a bit and settle in allows a bit more of the chocolatey notes to emerge, the burn malts mellow just a tad, but not enough to offset the too aggressive hop and bite in the finish. Not going back to this one.

 

 

Can. Black with lasting tan head and lace. Roasted coffee chocolate earthy aroma with some green hops. Rich dark chocolate with subdued fruit and light citrus and woody spicy finish. Full body. Creamy. Near perfect feel. TOTALLY FUCKING EXCELLENT.

Solid American stout with heavy roasted malt, chocolate, and coffee flavor.
Moderate bitter finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From a 16oz can, dated 12/19/17. Served in an imperial pint pub glass.

Pours a semi-opaque maple-black and raises a massive chocolate-mocha head so tall I can't get the beer into the glass. Retention on the order of five minutes with a loose, slippery spiderweb of lacing.

Nose of musty, dusty, dark roasted chocolaty malts. Smells like an attic closet.

Taste follows the nose with that dark, dry, not-quite-burnt barley, stale bread and old, musty cotton sheets. Not half as chocolaty on the palate as in the aroma, perked-on-the-stove Saturday morning coffee, dry, cracked leather boots and shredded cigarette tobacco. Powdery soft and dryly bitter.

Feel is smooth and dry, medium-light bodied to the style and well carbonated.

Overall, a good, solid representative of the style. Nice dry, musty bitterness, in part from the roasted barley and in part from some tasty, subtle hopping. Well worth keeping a four-pack on the basement floor in anticipation of a cold, raw evening.

Bottom of the can stamped "12/19/2017"; as an American stout sitting at 6.4% this should be good to discuss my thoughts on here.
This was poured into a nonic pint glass.
The appearance was a dark brown close to black color with a finger's worth of eggshell white foamy head. It seemed to "concave" inward as the head dissipated. Lace seemed to cling moderately against the glass.
The aroma seemed to bring in a "stifled" coffee roasty to semi-bitter character which ended up allowing a light dark chocolate bitterness come in slightly.
The flavor leaned into a blend of the roast and bitterness of the coffee and dark chocolate. Light coffee grounds, but nice and not bothersome. Slight aftertaste of the bitterness of the coffee, but semi-nice, not bothersome.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair in between sort of sessionable to sipping quality about it. Seemed like the ABV was on par, but wasn't distracting so that made me want to think that the overall feel was just sturdy enough to warrant this as a good "Winter" stout. Slight roasty and semi-sticky to a sweet sort of bitter kind of finish.
Overall, as an American Stout, I'd say this works. I'd have again.