One Tax Break Short Of A Great Name
Refined Fool Brewing Co.

750 mL bottle from the brewery; served at cellar temperature. This breakfast stout was definitely one of their most popular releases of 2014, so I am excited to see it back - partly because it gives me a chance to write out a full review, but also because I feel that this is easily one of Refined Fool's best brews to date.

Pours an opaque jet black colour, generating roughly one inch of loose, tan-coloured foam, which proceeds to recede rapidly over the next 60 seconds or so. A thin collar remains behind, but little else - not the most visually-attractive stout I've ever seen, but I don't buy beers to stare at them. The aroma is full of big roasted malt notes, with dark-roasted, earthy coffee grounds doing quite a good job at drawing the bulk of my nose's attention. Notes of cocoa, molasses, plummy dark fruit and oats come off mostly as background noise when compared to the robust coffee bean aromas.

This is a solid, coffee-focussed strong stout that features a good, bitter kick. Roasted malt flavours are (unsurprisingly) dominant, with nuances of molasses, toffee, plum, burnt bread and oatmeal providing an appropriate backdrop for the rich coffee bean flavours. Very dark-roasted, with an earthy, chocolate-covered-coffee-bean vibe developing by the late sip. The earthy, roasty astringency builds to a climax at the finish, wherein a brief flash of herbal licorice flavour is also featured. It leaves a bitter coffee grounds sensation behind on the palate, along with a vague notion of ethanol warmth. Medium-bodied, pushing toward the thicker side of that category, with mild carbonation levels that weakly agitate the palate. This stout drinks very smoothly and is undeniably delicious, but I still feel that a more viscous mouthfeel would aid it considerably.

Final Grade: 4.03, an A-. I've never had a 'breakfast stout' that I didn't enjoy, and One Tax Break Short of a Great Name has kept the streak alive. This is not a world-class beer, as there are a few minor/forgiveable flaws, but it's still a well-constructed coffee stout that deserves to be brought back annually. It would be a tough choice between this and their Ripsnorter - ultimately, I guess it just comes down to whether you prefer coffee and oats in your stout, or bourbon and vanilla. If you're visiting the brewery in Sarnia for the first time and spot this one in the fridge, I can think of few Refined Fool offerings that would make for a better starting point.