Woodstove
Monument City Brewing Company

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a black color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of chocolate, lactose. Taste is roasted malts, light smoke and chocolate, alcohol is well hidden. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall it's a decent beer, but I was expecting more.

Pours a murky dark brown with a meager head. Smell is inviting but a bit bland, toffee notes just tease the nose. Taste is sublime. Smooth, robust, a mild chocolatey base with noticeble toffee and coffee notes. Sweet but not overly so. Dry, full-bodied, flavorful. Very nice.

Been very disappointed by large stouts from small breweries lately, but the guy at the beer store talked me into this because he knows I am an easy mark.

Pour is damn near opaque and surprisingly fizzy for a beer of its size.

Aroma is potent but straightforward and not too intense. Coffee, burnt grain, bits of dark chocolate.

Tastes nicely fruity, fairly old school in that regard. Bittersweet burnt buttered biscuits up front, coffee and caramel in the middle, a finish of nicely ripe fruits, charred barley, and bit of tangy hops near the end.

This is, shockingly, an imperial stout made to early aughts standards. And it's done right.

 

Ebony appearance with a large but short lived light brown head and decent lacing. Smokey aroma, heavy on the roasted malts, along side perceptions of burnt toast, coffee and some bittersweet chocolate. Taste incorporates the dark fruit with roasted malts, tobacco and licorice. Ripe, dark fruit shows up again in the aftertaste as the alcohol becomes more evident. Dry, full bodied mouthfeel.

 

 

Traded for this a while ago, as the date on the bottom of the can read 11/17/17 with REACH FOR A MONUMENT written below it. This was the first beer that I ever had from them and for being as old as it was, it held up well over time. It was a bit dry but besides that, I found it easy to enjoy and relatively relaxed for the style!

This had a dark pour to it with a thick, mocha head to top it off. That was full of big bubbles as the lacing was also spotty with big gaps in between. A roasted and burnt tone filled the nose with plenty of raisin and currant in the mix as well. Toffee, dry chocolate, and some licorice came through in the taste with a smoked undertone to it. Not a lot of carbonation and boy, did this need a chaser of water to get everything down in the end! That was a bit surprising given that there was an espresso-like slickness to the mouthfeel but I still felt like this was more like a Porter than a Stout when all was said and done...

Hard to detect the booze here as this was quite easy to enjoy given it's heft. More dark fruit would have made this a clear winner as it would brought some more flavor and brightness to a beer that was a tad too roasted and darkly sweet. Not a bad brew and light enough that it could be enjoyed year-round, and not just in the winter!

From tasting notes 01/25/19
Had on tap at Five and Dime Alehouse in Baltimore, MD

Appearance - Served up in a 12oz snifter, black in color with cola brown edging where light can penetrate. Mostly barren surface with a thin ring around the edge of the glass. Lacing is mostly spotty with a few broken lines.

Smell  - Mostly sweet; caramel and toffee with hints of black licorice, chocolate and roast.

Taste - Follows the nose. Sweet mostly, with caramel and toffee making up the base, while notes of molasses, licorice, chocolate and roast playing off it. Finishes much the same, with licorice, molasses and toffee hanging around in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel - Near full-bodied with fair carbonation. Smooth, velvety texture before a mostly dry finish.

Overall - Complex, but damn is it sweet. Turn up the roast to balance this baby out and you have a much better beer, IMO.

appearance: pours with a nice tan head, very good lacing, nearly pitch black body but you can see a bit of brown if you hold a light to it.

smell: not a lot going on. toffee, roasty, a bit of oak and a hint of vanilla. the smells kinda blend together and are hard to distinctly pick out.

taste: similar to the smell. not too much going on, very simple. lots of toffee and chocolate going on. noticeably sweet and a little bit smokey. has a very faint bitterness, similar to hops.

feel: thick and full, as one might expect an imperial stout to be. smooth, carbonated just enough to be enjoyable. probably the best part of the beer.

overall: a pretty good stout. the flavor is a little bit bland but the feel makes up for it. for a 10% abv beer it doesn't taste like it so be careful with this one. can't say i'd recommend it overall but i'm not unhappy with it.

 

 

Apparently, got to this AIS earlier this season (20/12/2018). Enjoyed a brace of 8oz snifters at the Brass Tap here in Baltimore: cask & then draught.

01/01/2019: repeated the cask vs. draught comparison, and in this case (cask?) at least the advantage goes to the draught version