Númenor
Rhinegeist Brewery

 

Ripped from the pages of popular time period, role playing, magical and whimsical literary sagas, the Rhinegeist brewery finds itself under the full control of the inmates of their asylum... at least for one brewing episode. As part of their Brewers Series, a seldom seen tropical stout arises from the Tolkien story lines with the use of newer and fruitier hops to help tell the tale of taste.

Dark brown but never black, Númenor builds a creamy sepia froth that carries a roasty sweet scent across the nose. Hints of tropical fruit, cocoa and char also precede a taste of cola, caramel, candied nuttiness and simple syrups that greet the early palate first.

Then as the ale rolls across the middle palate, its sweetness pulls back slightly to allow a coffee influence seemingly of breakfast blends to invite a nuttiness of pecan, cola nut and macadamia before the late palate releases a balance of char, spicy bitterness and cedar. All the while, the fruitiness of hops allow for hints of citronella, pineapple and papaya to add a curious layer of complexity.

Medium bodied for stout but fuller for most other styles, the beer's fade to toasty, roasty and hop dryness is a veer from the true tropical stouts of the Caribbean islands as those are cloyingly sweet, fruity with esters, long and fat on the palate with unresolved malt sugars. This experimental ale trends much more like a British styled sweet stout with porter and brown ale tendencies.