Nail Stout
Nail Brewing Australia Pty Ltd

Black draft pour, but still with good clarity; reddish brown cap with good retention; great lacing. Roasted malt nose. Semi sweet roasted caramel malt flavor. Creamy medium mouthfeel with lite carbonation. Light bittersweet roasted malt linger - a perfectly fine stout.

 

 

 

330ml bottle, no freshness date, poured into pint glass. Label states it has 6 different malts in the mash.

L - jet black, almost completely opaque. There is a thin, pale brown head than is gone fairly quickly, leaving a thin creamy ring.

S - milk chocolate and lighty roasted malts. Hint of hazelnut and burnt porridge.

T - creamy, roasted malt taste with a some coffee notes that are not overpowering, but are definitely noticable towards the end. The finish is mildly acidic dark chocolate taste with a subtle herbal hoppy bitterness.

F - feels a bit watery for an oatmeal stout. The texture, while creamy, isn't a thick as other oatmeal stouts I've had. The beer has a nice chewy texture at the finish. Carbonation is moderate, maybe a touch on the lively side.

O - a little bit dissapointed. This is one of my favourite beer styles and while this stout was certainly decent with a creamy texture and balanced low key mix of choc and coffee , the light body and slightly acidic finish was not appreciated. Still, its a solid beer thats definitely drinkable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tasty, sessionable stout with great balance and variety of flavours

Aroma: dark malt/yeast

Taste: dark malt, dark fruit, slight smoke and vegemite and very slight dark chocolate

at or near the top of the Australian stouts - very nice and balanced beer

On-tap at Harts Pub in Sydney.

Pours a deep brown colour, lighter at the edges, but mostly consisting of a solid, heavy colour. Fine head forms a foamy, musky brown crest that leaves some middling but decent enough lacing. Looks like a solid, dependable stout: decent and tasty. Like it should.

Nose is relatively bland, but fine. There's nothing wrong with it: it's standard stout material. Fine, light dusty roasted characters, a little vegemite and a slight butyric suggestion (that is so faint I'm pretty sure it's not actually butyric acid). Quite restrained otherwise.

Taste is lovely. Toasty malt with a mild sweet uptilt and roast to balance it. Exceptionally smooth. Some char towards the back, but restrained, and just a hint of some banana esters coming through. It's all very nicely kept in balance, whatever is happening.

Feel is a little light, but that just aids the drinkability and sessionability.

And sessionable it is: this is a lovely, relatively lightweight stout. We need more sessionable, easy-drinking dark beers, and this is a good one. I like it a lot.

 

From Beer Cartel. No BB.

Pours black 'n' tan. One finger coarse head subsides to film.

Aromas of roast and coffee. Moderate.

Taste is good and bad. Good in that it has good choc/coffee/roast notes, plus hint of smoke/wood, but bad in that they do not stay around too long in the mouth. Somewhat watery taste.

Mouthfeel light to watery even taking into account low ABV.

Good stout, not a great one, tho not getting a lot of oatmeal.

 

330ml handbottle of the latest batch. Huge thanks to MordeciaFunk for this. Into a Kishimoto Duvel tulip.

Pours a matt black colour with a finger of foam. The mocha foam falls to film over a couple of minutes.

Strong aroma of chocolate, chocolate topping and a touch of licorice. Really nice, especially for the abv, smells like there is plenty coming.

Sadly not quite as much. Taste has some coffee upfront and waves of chocolate after that. Some cocoa in there, but mainly chocolate and plenty of it.

Some coffee bitterness upfront but the smoothness of the chocolate takes care of that swiftly. Needs more bitterness in the back end as it sort of drops away as it becomes more akin to a milkshake.

Nice interesting stout that needs a bit more bite to see it become something special. Does get a touch watery at the finish, but still worth chasing. Hopefully the new brewery will see the capacity to be able to meet the solid demand for this beer that Nail have previously been unable to satisfy.

On tap at the Sail and Anchor in Fremantle.

A - Pours a deep dark black/brown with a tinge of red. A dense finger of tan head caps the body and creates some lace sheets.

S - Coffee, cocoa beans, brown sugar and ash.

T - Smooth combination of bitter coffee, dark chocolate and caramel. Nice depth.

M - Medium body, not as thick and full as some oatmeal stouts, moderate carbonation.

O - Was stoked to see this up on the board at the Sail and Anchor. I live in Perth and it's the first time Ive had the opportunity to try this celebrated stout after a good two years of craft beer enthusiasm. I wasn't let down.

Drank on Tap at Clancy's fish pub.

A - Pours a dark deep Ebony colour befitting of a stout. TAneed head last a while before slowly fading away.

S - Expresso aromas are present, with soem caramelised sugars, maybe a little citrus.

T - Some nice dark cocoa flavours up front, before some roasted malts kick in, a little bitter on the finish.

M - Medium to full body and carbonation, maybe a little light on body.

O - I don't know of a better stout made in Australia at this ABV. It is smooth and offers plenty in flavour

330ml bottle sent to me my Mulder, drank from a tulip... A dark brown body, nothing of note. The head is medium tan, about two fingers rises and leave a full finger cap for several minutes. Ok lacing... Right away I don't get much out of this weak head so I give it a couple minutes to open up. Even as it warms, still not much comes through. The front gives off a very small bit of chocolate, a touch of smoke, then you get a weird body aroma. As bad as that sounds its not horrendous, primarily weak and boring... The taste is much stronger but the taste and mouthfeel are distracting. Its very ashy, charred ash, harsh. Some stale coffee and prunes. This is not very good... The mouthfeel is off, over-carbonated and dry is not a good combination.

My first impression of Australian craft, not off to a great start. I we go up from here.