Pretzel Day Stout
903 Brewers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a can into a pint snifter
Appearance – The beer pours a deep brown color with a small head of light brown colored foam. The head has a decent level of retention, fading slowly over time to leave a moderate level of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is a mix of all kinds of sweet and dark. It is strongest of a milk chocolate and roasted malt flavor with some pretzel like breadiness. At the same time there are big sweet aromas of brown sugar, toffee, and caramel as well as notes of confectioners’ sugar and vanilla marshmallows. Other aromas of peanut, peanut butter, and almond as well as a touch of mint round out the smell, producing a nice, but kitchen dessert sink like smell overall.
Taste – The taste starts with a very sweet roasted malt flavor with the sweet being mainly a mix of chocolate, caramel, toffee, and brown sugar. While those are the strongest of the sweet flavors, there are also notes of a coconut crème and some vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. As the taste advances the roastiness fades a touch all while the sweetness gets even more intense. All the while a touch of the bready salted pretzel taste comes to the tongue. At the end a touch of char and even more sweetness comes to the tongue, and with a touch of alcohol booziness, it leaves one with a somewhat cloyingly sweet stout taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is thick with a carbonation level that is on the lower side. For the big nature and style of the brew the feel is decent and makes for a dessert sipper.
Overall – An interesting concoction of sweet ingredients, most of which you can detect in either the nose or taste. All said however, this is a bit to sweet and cloying for my taste. Fun to maybe try once, but after that, no more…