Flat Cap Stout
Tool Shed Brewing

 

 

Flat Cap Stout fills my glass thick, viscous, and pitch black. The head is dense, light coffee and cream colored, and lasting.

Flat Cap's aroma is rich and luscious, with an up front sweetness supported by hints of roasted coffee. On closer examination, that sweetness becomes milk chocolate in nature, pairing nicely with those hints of coffee. A light dusting of cocoa powder adds a little something before moving quickly and obligatoraly into a quick hit of ripe stone fruit.

On the tongue, Flat Cap is full bodied, lush, and smooth. Up front sweetness tastes like those milk chocolates we all loved as children. Sweetness builds towards the center, putting Flat Cap's profile in danger of firing on only one note. Fortunately, the center passes and gives us fresh earth before the lingering finish full of fresh ground, roasted coffee.

Flat Cap is a very good stout. I don't know if I'd rate it as world class, but it is at the very least very respectable. It has all the flavors and aromas of a good stout. It's sweet and chocolatey with hints of roasted coffee, etc. I think my only complaint is some of the aromas don't quite mesh as well as I would like. But pretty close, though.

 

 

 

 

 

355ml can poured into tulip 25/1/17

A dark cola liquid with a dark finger of foam that fizzes out fairy fast leaving a few random patches

S licorice, fennel, cocoa powder, herbal and earthy hops, and just a little char

T lots of chocolate and earthy notes, not all that far from the nose

m light bodied and it almost gets foamy, some grit inside the mouth with a dark chocolate finish

O decent stout I could session, lots of dark roast notes without being all that intense

I'm surprised it took me so long to try this one, nothing amazing but not a bad little beer that's well suited for this chilly day

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is definitely a dandy stout - perhaps not as dynamic as the other beers from this small Calgary brewery. I sampled this on tap at the Craft Beer Market - at $4 a pint for Happy Hour, this was a steal of a deal. It looks the way a stout should - deep and dark with a tan head that hangs around for the ride. The nose and flavour have plenty of roasted malt, with cocoa and anise thrown in for good measure. I found the mouthfeel to be a bit thin for my tastes, but overall, this is definitely a brew I would order again.

16oz glass at Beer Revolution YEGDT. So named after Jamie Gordon (who apparently had a predilection for the titular headgear), an originator in the craft beer canning world, whose products Tool Shed obviously uses, though ironically not here.

This beer appears a very, very dark brown cola colour, with one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves a disintegrating wall of sudsy limestone lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of semi-sweet, grainy, and mildly toasted caramel malt, fruity milk chocolate, a touch of discount store black licorice, and strangely prominent perfumed floral hops. The taste is bready and faintly roasted caramel malt, chalky cocoa powder, subtle free-agent ash, some muddled dark berry fruitiness (which renders the licorice essences more on the Twizzlers side of things), and minor earthy, leafy, and floral hop bitters.

The bubbles are decently represented in their understated frothy meanderings, the body a solid medium weight, and mostly smooth, just a touch of that odd floral character chiming in. It finishes off-dry, the cocoa and caramel still contending with that not altogether unwelcome perfumed thing.

Overall, this is a genial, straight-up stout, until that fruity eau de toilette essence hits me, and sticks around for the long haul. After verifying that it wasn't coming from the friendly bartendress, and the stools next to me remaining unoccupied, it became clear that it was in the beer! S'all good, but now I need to find out what hops they used.