Black Sheep
White Pony Microbrewery

4.13/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

The style of this beer is not my favorite. The beer is fine, it has lacked strength, but surely the beer already demands that it not be extreme. The product wins a lot with higher temperature. They served it too cold.

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4.13/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured from tap into pint.
S: black with a massive coffee like foam head.
S: coffee, chocolate.
T: chocolate caramel
F: medium body and carbonation
O: decent stout.

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4.01/5  rDev -2.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

330ml bottle - another brew for this Italian contract outfit made for them by Brouwerij Het Nest in Belgium. Nicely stereotypical trope on the label about the 'black sheep' of the family being a smoker.

This beer pours a solid black hole, with the barest of basal cola edges, and two fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and yet somewhat fizzy brown head, which leaves but a few specks of remote islet 'lace' around the glass as things slowly progress.

It smells of lightly roasted caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, black licorice, boozy real vanilla extract (the kind I used to make banana bread with today with my toddler - don't judge), subtle cafe-au-lait notes, and very understated leafy, weedy, and perfumed floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, some oily bar-top nuttiness, milk chocolate, a bit of free-range ashiness, vague anise spice, still hard to parse bruised stone fruit, and more tame leafy, earthy, and soused-up floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its merely supportive frothiness, the body a sturdy medium-heavy weight, and generally smooth, with a nice creaminess evolving as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the cocoa, caramel, roast, and boozy fruitiness keeping us all nice and tucked in.

Overall, this is a very well rendered version of the style, nice and malty, with a full complement of guest esters to be enjoyed. Funny how this gypsy (itinerant?) brewer can make their beers at a Belgian operation, and not have it come off all yeasty, eh, Mikkeller? Good job, miei amici!

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3.85/5  rDev -6.1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

33cl bottle. Very dark brown pour with a beige head. Smells like cherries, almonds, roasted malts, lactose and coffee. Tastes pretty much the same as it smells, emphasis on milk chocolate, coffee and toffee. Medium to full bodied, smooth texture, low carbonation and a bitter-sweet aftertaste.

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4/5  rDev -2.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown with a thin, light khaki head that dissipates to patches, but good light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, dark chocolate, a hint of vanilla and coffee. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, cocoa, vanilla, coffee and just a hint of dark fruit in the finish, which leaves a light, lingering grassy hop flavor. Medium bodied with light creaminess. A nice toasty imperial stout with a profile that is somewhat between a domestic imperial stout and a continental dry export stout. That works well here. Not a classic imperial stout, but interesting and full flavored. The flavors are toasty and malty from start to finish. An unusual and pleasant variant of the stout style. I enjoyed it. Nice humorous label.

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