Gingerbread Stout
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

Pours with rich red highlights on the edges of this clear black Stout. The head forms a brief, thin, almond head of fine foam. The head quickly forms a ring, leaving no lace on a Pretentious Glass Company Imperial Snifter.

Both the gingerbread and cinnamon open strong against a background of roasted malt that is slight, yet distinctly discernable. Warmth brings out vanilla.

Roasted malt is much more present in the flavor, with cinnamon, then ginger, following. It is fairly sweet on entry, allowing bitterness to build in the slowly approaching then receding finish.\

It has a medium to full body with a soft, smooth texture of cashmere. The alcohol has a light warming sensation and is generally as expected. Carbonation is light and fizzy.

This is a fun Christmas beer and definitely better fresh than after three months of age.

Pours a dark, reddish brown with practically no head.

Aroma is an unpleasant mix of spices and pinesol - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and pinesol cleaner.

The flavor is a mess of spices. There's that same mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger combined like a toddler got into the spice cabinet and started shaking things indiscriminately, laid over a foundation of sweet molasses.

The mouth feel is nice.

Overall, this beer is a mess. Far from "Christmas in a glass", it's more like "A mess of Christmas spices in a glass." I don't know if they changed the recipe or something, but this was pretty unpleasant and not a beer I'd want to drink again. I kept trying it, in hopes that I just got a bad can, but it was consistently unpleasant.

16 oz can dated 11/4/24 "Catch Me If You Can"

Pours a deep mahogany with small fine tan head. Spotty lacing, surface ring.
Strong ginger, brown sugar, malt aromas.
Ginger, molasses, cinnamon, honey, vanilla, light fig flavors.
Smooth and creamy. Chewy vanilla and cinnamon up front. Full bodied, low carbonation, lingering ginger flavor. Low alcohol heat. Sweetness and vanilla develop as the glass warms.
Full strength imperial milk stout with gingerbread. Perfect for a snow day.

 

Poured from a 16 oz can into a snifter. Strong spiced aroma, but it doesn't smell like gingerbread to me. Instead, I get cardamom to a level that is slightly off-putting. Luckily, the flavors are much more appealing, with some gingerbread and honey before the cardamom comes back late in the palate. Medium to heavy body has some silkiness and a low creamy carbonation. Low to medium hops bitterness with warming alcohol. I found this to be an interesting pastry stout, but with its off the scale spice notes, I didn't think it was worth the high ratings others gave it. Perhaps the brewery has changed the recipe, or I just got a beer from a batch where the spice mix was a bit off.

19.2 ounce can poured into a goblet.

L: Very dark brown, 1/2” beige head, foam leaves slick sheets of lace and recedes to a collar and a sparse cap in a minute or so.
S: Mineral (iron) notes and ginger, caramel, mild alcohol.
T: Ginger forward, coffee and vanilla cream, baking spice and lactose flavor, finishes sweet.
F: Medium bodied, medium carbonation, a bit creamy, goes down smooth and warm with a small finishing bite.
O: Heavy duty seasonal sipper, enough sweetness to balance the spice character.

Poured room temp from a can into a 16oz pint glass. Appearance is opague dark brown. Initial 2-finger khaki head faded somewhat quickly to a thin ring around the rim. Little lacing.
Aroma is roastiness, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, baking spice, chocolate tones.
Taste is that of a gingerbread cookie. Sweet malt and honey, vanilla, cinnamon. Roasty malt.
Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. Just shy of full bodied but with some chew. Tiny carbonation bubbles give this a velvety mouthfeel. Alcohol is well-concealed.
Overall this is a nice holiday sweet treat. Fits the milk stout profile, add in some baking spices and ginger and wham! Your drinking a liquid gingerbread cookie. Not really as cloying as I was thinking it was going to be. Decent balance, definitely leans sweet though. Good dessert beer on a cold winter night. Would get this one again.

 

Only wish this wasn’t seasonal and at the same time I’m glad this is seasonal. Usual color for a stout. Taste amazing and easily one of my favorites!

Poured from a 16 oz can into a tulip glass; no know birth date on the can. Pours black with two+ fingers of initial brown foamy head that rapidly recedes. Great lacing. Smells of chocolate and sugar; tases just like a gingerbread cookie. High ABV is muted but definitely there. Great holiday beer.

This poured a beautiful dark ruby brown with about 1.5" of pillowy tan head. Scant retention minimal lacing. The look alone is darn near gold standard.

The aroma is lacking until 1) it warms and 2) you can really get your nose in the glass. Once 1 & 2 are met, boy howdy. Rich vanilla, cinnamon, molasses, ginger, sugar, and some booze.

The flavor is really special. A couple of years ago, I fell in love with Gingerbread Yeti, and this is the first gingerbread stout I've been able to find that compares with it. When they say gingerbread, there's a really nice "bite" to the ginger that is reminiscent of the actual baked goodies. The boozy aroma? It's blended in so well. It alllllmost seems like it was very briefly barrel aged. Not much at all in the way of chocolate, but I view that as a good thing. The taste is outstanding.

The mouthfeel is very good, but not outstanding. Smooth. Somewhat oily. Would have preferred a thicker body for such a powerful flavor profile. It was medium, but felt like it should have been more chewy.

Overall: A really special gingerbread stout. Nothing tastes artificial, everything is blended really well, and it's a joy to drink.

Very nice beer. Great flavor. Great thickness for a stout. Very sippable. I enjoy this beer.

Mahogany pour with a tan fairly sturdy head. Nose is like a box of ginger snap cookies. I got more spice than chocolate, and clearly ginger is the most forward within the flavor profile. Cinnamon and honey are in support. Felt a little thin body-wise, leaving me with as more of a ginger ale than a ginger stout. With a multitude of high ratings I was expecting more than just "okay."

Sampling a cellar temp 16 oz can with datestamp of 10/25/2023. Part of a Christmas gift to me. Woot woot!
Pouring into my snifter the beer exudes a dark coffee color in the glass and no light passes through. A dense beige head of .5 cm foams up and fades to a sturdy edge layer that remains through the sampling.
Aroma is a malty gingerbread cookie mix. I get cinnamon, ginger, molasses and vanilla mixing with some toffee notes. Not really chocolatey like many stouts. Pretty spot on nose for a gingerbread cookie.
First sip reveals medium body with very fine tingly carbonation and slightly oily texture. Feels a little coating on each sip.
Flavor is some molasses and brown sugar, moves to cinnamon and a little milk chocolate and finishes ginger and cinnamon. I dont think there are any hops in this beer and the ABV is pretty well hidden too.
this is a tasty sweet stout, that has some balanced spiciness too. Im glad to have tried this one and would enjoy it even more in front of the fire with snow falling outside. tasty stout

Tried blind side-by-side the BBA variant. This one smells like opening a fresh bag of gingersnap cookies. The ginger in particular is quite expressive. Nice to see the cinnamon doesn't just dominate everything. Flavors lean more cinnamon-forward, although there is still a noticeable ginger character (more powdered than fresh). More herbal hoppy bitterness and less sweetness than expected. No particularly discernable honey or vanilla. Feel is quite thin for the ABV, more in line with a classic Irish stout. Overall pretty decent and definitely less gimmicky than anticipated. The ginger is the highlight of this one

73/100

 

 

**
01/14/24

can to snifter

thick brown foamy head over a dark black body.
good retention

gingerbread, spiced cookie, ginger ale,

roasted malt, fig, gingerbread, spiced cookie, fruitcake, molasses

full body , hint of sharp spice heat, dry feel, very good carbonation for the style.

**