Double Dutch
Indie Ale House Brewing Company

500 mL bottle from the Toronto Brewing 2021 advent calendar; I don't see a packaging date. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a dark chestnut brown with reddish highlights; a gentle pour gives me nothing, while a rougher pour results in more than two fingers of creamy, foamy, beige-coloured head that continues to slowly rise for another thirty seconds. It recedes gradually in under ten minutes' time, caking the glass with a fractal pattern of lace as it's reduced to a tight collar and thin cap. Sweet on the nose, but not as saccharine as I'd expect from pastry/cookie stout - I'm getting caramel syrup, with notes of coffee, roasted malt, chocolate chip cookie dough and treacle; hints of raisin, fig, milk sugar, cinnamon and booze.

It's delicious, but oh man is it sweet, with the bonus ingredients largely running the show. The coffee comes through early on, with flavours of milk chocolate, lactose and caramel also figuring in strongly; these are followed by notes of dark chocolate, treacle and figgy dark fruit. Stroopwafel (caramel cookie) sweetness and plenty more coffee on the back end, with cinnamon and vanilla preceding a moderately boozy, pastry-sweet aftertaste that lingers on. Thick-bodied, with low carbonation that meekly nudges the surface of the tongue; feels slick and almost creamy on the palate, with a little bit of numbing from the 12%. There's no hiding that it's a very strong beer, but the cookie and coffee flavours integrate nicely with the alcohol.

Final Grade: 4.19, an impressive A-. Indie Ale House and Town are two breweries with which I've had only limited experience - and I had no idea what a 'stroopwafel' was prior to consulting Google - so suffice to say, I was going into Double Dutch rather blind. It's considerably more sugary than I tend to prefer my stouts, but in the case of a cookie pastry stout I suppose I can make an exception - besides, the coffee and cinnamon add some additional depth and balance. Certainly one of the highlights of the advent calendar I pulled it from, and an undoubtedly unique & flavourful pastry stout that I won't be forgetting any time soon. I'd buy this one again, and I'd encourage BAs with a sweet tooth to seek this out and try it if they're able.

Only my second beer from this brewery and first stout.
Pours with a little head forming. The nose is very nice though a bit sweet, then within a minute, cinnamon oozes through. That is not a good sign.
The feel is super smooth. The taste is pretty well cinnamon and while I like some cinnamon in certain food, I do not like it in beer. Not just because of that but because the cinnamon pushes everything to the background, most notable the coffee, that I can't fully recommend this. Unless you love cinnamon.