Phase Stout
Sparky's Brewing Company

Poured from a crowler into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a quarter finger khaki head that dissipates to a thin film with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, cocoa, Postum and hints of vanilla, licorice and coffee. Flavor is dark toasted malt with moderate char, bakers chocolate, vanilla and coffee with some coffee-like char in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. My crowler had a very slight leak in it, but this appears to have arrived home in good shape with good carbonation and a decent head; perhaps it would have been more developed at the tap. Flavor is nice and roasty, although the malt base seemed more like a robust porter than a stout, it did have nice char and chocolate character. I liked my taster at the brewery and very much enjoyed this stout at home. The ABV is well covered and the flavor density, while fine, is not as intense as the ABV suggests. It's a pleasant sipper. I didn't have big expectations for this brewery since the website scared the bejesus out my firewall program and I never got to look at the tap list ahead of time. However, the taproom is quite nice and has a good variety of their own styles and guest brews. My second crowler was from one of these guest breweries, but I will probably stop by here again when I'm in the area and check out an IPA.