Stout
Kootenai River Brewing Company & Restaurant

16oz glass at the brewery in Bonners Ferry.

This beer appears a solid black, with the barest of basal cola edges, and one hefty finger of puffy, tightly foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some attractive swooping paint swath lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of sweet caramel/toffee malt, tart dark orchard fruit, bittersweet cocoa nibs, a faint Nordic licorice character, and weak leafy, earthy, and weedy hops. The taste is sharp and edgy dark fleshy fruit, grainy caramel malt, milk chocolate, a tame bar-top nuttiness, wet char, and still understated leafy, weedy, and now kind of perfumed hops.

The bubbles are pretty innocuous in their playful if not really structurally relevant frothiness, the body a decent medium-full weight, and generally smooth, the slowing evolving booze the only interloper that might get in the way of the attendant creaminess. It finishes fairly off-dry, the big malt and chocolate really running the table by the end.

Overall, a pleasant example of a big (ok, middle-sized) Yankee stout, even if, once again, the Nugget and Willamette hops are not really earning their paychecks. Besides all that, if you're into the sweeter side of stoutdom, then this one might be for you.