Oyster Stout
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

 

 

 

On-tap at Hardwood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a wide collar of tan collars around the edge of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of dark malts are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of dark malts along with hints of oyster brine.
M: It feels light- to medium-bodied and very airy on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is very easy to drink and goes down smoothly.

Serving type: on-tap

 

 

The stout is fine, just not much oyster.

 

The beer pours a nice tan head that comes out creamy and dissipates quickly. The beer itself is a nice coffee black that has a nice sheen to it.

The smell and taste are good. It has a nice sweet chocolate note with a light malt roast and tiny bit of smokiness that comes in and out. There's a very light briney smell but it comes and goes as it gets buried by the other notes.

The feel is fairly good. It has a medium body and a slight thinness to it as well. However, it works for the style and definitely helps for the ABV and good for warmer weather.

Overall, this is a pretty good beer and a good ark one for the summer months. I kind of wish it was a little dryer with a bit more briness when poured into the growler. On draft, it definitely had a nice brine note to it.

 

 

On tap at whole foods. Poured very dark, almost black, tan head. Smelled of malt, almost smokey. Taste was bitter, chocolate, long after taste. Very thin for a stout, but at only 5.5% maybe that's to be expected.

 

Poured a black body with one finger tan head that died slow and left a lace ring that clung to glass entire time. The aroma had notes of roasted malts that border on coffee and some bitter chocolate (resisting the urge to say salty or briny since this is an oyster stout). The beer is light bodied, smooth, mild one might say, with this bitter chocolate sweetness that balanced with that dry, roasted (almost coffee) malt presence. Little dry and sticky on finish, beer seems to lighten and sweeten as it warms. A rather easy drinking, simplistic stout that is really good and got better as I drank.