Windrose
Steel & Oak Brewing Co.

8oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG Oliver Square - strange that this is only available on draft in Alberta, as we usually get their cans and bottles. Ah well.

This beer appears a clear, dark amber-highlighted brown colour, with one skinny finger of wispy and bubbly beige head, which leaves some decent melting glacier profile lace around the glass as things quickly progress.

It smells of lightly roasted and sort of meaty caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, faint cafe-au-lait, a bit of black stone fruitiness, and some tame earthy, weedy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, some free-range ashiness, sugarless chocolate, day-old coffee grounds, wet prunes (not quite plums, is what I mean), and more understated earthy, musty, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite meek in its perfunctory frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and mostly smooth, with just a hint of char maybe messing with perfection here. It finishes trending dry, the toasted character assuming the lingering throttle.

Overall - this is a well-made version of the style, with the cocoa and coffee essences meted out in judicious doses. Easy to drink, full-flavoured, and definitely worth checking out, especially if this is your sort of thing.

650 ml bottle purchased at Broadway Liquor Store in Vancouver.

A: dark brown with reddish highlights, a finger of tan head.
S: toasty grains, rye, cocoa.
T: quite bitter.
F: very smooth.

 

 

 

Steel & Oak Brewing 'Four Grain Windrose Porter' @ 6.0% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6
A-pour is a cola brown from the bottle to a near black in the glass with a medium size tan head leaving a streaky lace film along the pint
S-coffee & hint of chocolate
T-ok tasting porter , with roasted barley , rye
MF-decent carbonation , medium body , a dryness lingers on the palate
Ov-possible good beer & porter
prost LampertLand

 

Served On-Tap @ Steel & Oak

A — A nice dark brown appearance, though still fairly light for the style. Nice light mocha colored head sits atop the glass. Really nice lacing left behind with each sip.

S — Smell is mostly of sweet roasted malts, slightly bitter, light notes of cocoa powder, cereal grains, light malted milk tone.

T — Nice notes of roasted malts, lightly done though. Notes of chocolate, caramel malts, not too much else, just very straightforward, nice overall.

M — Medium bodied, little bit of a lingering finish.

O — Good overall, fairly straightforward and one dimensional though.