North Star Stout
Russell Brewing Company

Russell Brewing 'North Star Stout' @ 6.0% , served on tap @ Garrick's Head for $7 a glass
A-pour is a near black in the glass with a small tan head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-sweet smelling at the first ,
T-smooth and crisp stout
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-ok beer , decent American Stout
prost LampertLand

Holy shit, an American stout that does not violate the German purity law! A label rather devoid of info, bottle taken from a mixed pack and poured into a tulip glass. Pretty much pitch black, with two fingers of frothy tan head, rather ebullient at first but quickly settling down.

Nose is initially rather roasted, near-ashy, featuring the expected black coffee and dry cacao powder aromas. Quickly mellows out into a more caramel malt territory. Getting some rum toffee, cherry tobacco, and a whiff of coconut on the palate. More hops than expected, recalling mint and dried mango (!). Things don't get too crazy, though ... There's the coffee and butterscotch again. I am finding the proceedings to be quite smooth and creamy, although the body remains anchored in moderate climes. The dark malts are rather tannic and tart, which combine with the creamy mouthfeel to bring a fleeting image of yogurt to mind. Shaking that off, I assess the carbonation as gentle to medium. Finish is again on the hoppy side for a stout, a little resinous with some dried fruit and chocolate.

Weird. Its a weird stout, truth be told. Or maybe I'm weird. In any event, this is the right beer at the right time. Run like an antelope.

 

341ml bottle, part of the current winter Russell mixed pack - no other expository info on the label.

This beer pours a pretty solid abyssal black, with the barest of basal red cola edges, and one fat finger of weakly foamy, but rather creamy and bubbly brown head, which leaves a bit of ocean swell lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of more bitter than sweet cocoa powder, weak bready caramel malt, indistinct sour black fruit, earthy anise, soft dry coffee bean notes, and weirdly peppy leafy, weedy hops. The taste is more chalky dark chocolate, gritty pale and caramel malts, Nordic licorice sans the salt, day-old coffee, a subtle phenolic yeastiness, and sort of spicy (in a mint leaf manner) and earthy hops.

The bubbles are generally supportive in their average fizzy and frothy ministrations, the body an adequate medium weight, and not particularly smooth, the hops and other ne'er do-wells trampling all over the roses here. It finishes off-dry, but barely, the cocoa essence persisting, along with a few of the previously mentioned side players, and the fallout of that sassy and strangely sexy Polaris hop metallic and herbaceous, um, 'character'.

An interesting, and mostly well-made winter stout, the chocolate and hop notes really the only things worth continuing to talk about. So, yeah, a decently flavoured brew, the inborn mintiness more or less balancing out the confectionery malt, but let's be serious here, no one is going to mistake this for After Eights, which I suppose is not a bad thing.