Night Ride
Woodland Empire Ale Craft

New ownership or something must have recycled this name. I missed the stout version but it’s now advertised as and is very much a dark lager.

12oz can pours fairly dark with a giant dark khaki head. Smooth notes of coffee abound, very pleasant and without any of that acrid bitterness. A bit nutty and minor roastiness on the palate, this is all coffee but never acidic or bitter. I think they nailed it, especially at that low abv.

used to love woodland so much, but now they have changed hands and their identity so many times that its hard to even know who they are, this is the first new one i have had from them in some time, and its as confusing as their identity and their taproom hours. its great because it has good coffee in it and lots of it, coffee almost ahead of beer in this, which is not that hard to do in a stout so light and low in abv and body, but also without the coffee, im not sure how compelling the stout is. its got some sweetness, some possible non coffee derived astringency, is a little under attenuated, and lacks the smooth texture i look for in a good stout, thin in that way. not much head on this deep brown almost runny looking brew with big soda style bubbles rising up and bursting. aromas and flavors of a fresh brewed pot, french roast, and like on a chilly morning, its cozy and comforting. some good roast to the coffee, almost deeper than the grain to be, and there is some bitterness double jeopardy creeping in with that, but its balanced by some molasses type sweetness in the middle and a pretty long linger, i do wish this were drier and cleaner overall, the yeast seems a touch stressed and there are some amateur components to this overall that are thankfully covered up by the huge dose of coffee. a little late acidity, a cigar note, bit relatively two dimensional between the roasted barley and the java. i like this being low alcohol but i still dont want much more than a pint. good to see a new beer from them, but this could use some fine tuning...

Half pour at Woodland. Near black pour, fluffy beige head, lacing. Roasty aroma, chocolate, light coffee. Taste is mildly bitter, roasty, coffee present but not overpowering. Pleasant.