Liberty Stout
Browar Widawa Gospoda Pod Czarnym Kurem S.c.

On-draught into a conical pint glass. Reviewed from notes taken in Poland in Summer 2014.

HEAD: 2 fingers wide and of creamy khaki colour. IT's aptly thick, with a nice complexion. Retention is nice - ~5+ minutes. Leaves no lacing as it recedes.

BODY: Opaque dark ruby-black. Looks typical for a stout.

AROMA: Hops dominate, actually. Herbla, piney, estery, floral, and faint evergreen hop notes. Pale malts. Dark malts.

Smells more like a black IPA than a stout. I detect no roasted barley, chocolate malt, etc. The hops are lovely, though, and the dryness of the aroma is apt. A pleasant aroma of average strength.

TASTE: The hop notes found in the aroma clash with a strange herbal character in the taste, with stout-redolent notes of fennel, cream, and thin dark malts mucking up the flavour profile further still.

Average duration, depth, and intensity of flavour. Doesn't taste like a stout, but it does possess the fundamental imbalance of a subpar Cascadian dark ale. Neither subtly constructed nor gestalt in its build. I don't care much for it, but there are individual elements that work well.

TEXTURE: Thin, weak, smooth, somewhat dry, and strangely light in body. Poorly executed for a stout. The mouthfeel fails to complement the flavour profile well. Overcarbonated as well.

OVERALL: Strange hop dominance and core imbalance destroy this beer, which ends up feeling like a failed experiment. Surely Widawa can do better. Downable but scattered and unfocused, Liberty Stout is a beer I wouldn't bother getting again.

High C- (2.73) / BELOW AVERAGE

Black, rich foam, great laces. Smell and taste: citrusy, piney, coffeish, black berries. Rich mouthful. Bit overwhelming bitterness for me, I'd say it's much higher in alcohol than it is. Not unsimilar to Green Flash Double Stout. Very nice beer, especially for hopheads. Not really an English stout, maybe even not American as it says on the label. I'd say it's some kind of Black IPA.