Palma
Odell Brewing Company

really neat beer here, modeled on a banana date shake, and thus i think rightly a pastry stout by definition? my first beer added under this new category, and somewhat of a triumph from odell, their smaller outposts are churning out some great beers, this one from the sloans lake spot, its fire! nice base beer, hearty stout with more chocolate to it than roast, not pushing too deep even with all the body, its more brown than black, its not real bitter, and it leaves plenty of room for middle malts, i think a smart call with all the extras in here. some slight murkiness in the glass, a leathery reddish tone, not much head. the nose is neat, equal parts ripe yellow banana and actual date, sugary as such, but real, with some cocoa from the base stout coming through, a little tobacco thing kind of grounding it, cinnamon and vanilla also apparent but not overly decadent, brown sugar with the date, i guess kind of missing that dairy element, not sure if there is lactose in this or not, but also ive never had a banana date shake, so my reference point isnt there. the flavor is great too, lots of date, recognizable, a bit sweet but relatively well fermented out, real banana too, smashed and ripe like my infant child eats in this little squeezy pop thing that we fill a half dozen times a day for him, love the integrity of the lead ingredients, and i think the support of the vanilla and cinnamon in the background is nice too, well dosed. somehow the alcohol is obscured by all the flavor, cocoa and raisin late, really good, a little different each sip, almost more brown ale or even american strong ale than stout, without a ton of roast and darkness to the grain, but its unique and i like the recipe decisions with this. the refinement isnt quite amazing, there is some fine sediment weighing it down a little bit, and the carbonation is really low, it could be cleaner, less chewy, but i guess dates are chewy arent they? a little bit of tidying would go a long way for this, its a touch amateur, but the recipe and flavors are so good its hard to be too critical. seems like not a ton of innovation from the odell mothership of late, but these satellite locations are keeping it fun and interesting, really enjoyed this one!