Dry Irish Stout
Ravens Brewing Company

 

Ravens Brewing 'Dry Irish Stout' @ 4.8% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $6.30
A-pour is cola brown from the bottle to a near black in the glass with a small tan head leaving a streaky lace along the pint
S-roasted malts
T-espresso , dry bitter finish
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-just an ok beer
prost LampertLand

 

650ml bottle - produced with all Abbotsford-area ingredients - nice.

This beer pours a fairly solid black, with subtle basal red cola highlights, and three fingers of puffy, rocky, and chunky tan head, which leaves a bit of low-lying fog bank lace around the glass as it slowly but surely abates.

It smells of roasted caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, mild cafe-au-lait, a muddled black stone fruitiness, some further free-range ash, those vanilla cookies, and very tame earthy, weedy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, medium dark chocolate, vanilla extract (sans the booze), mildly acerbic espresso, more random char, and some rather subtle earthy, musty, and dead floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its quotidian frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and sort of smooth, with some wet ashiness sticking to the various extremities of my palate. It finishes trending dry, as per the name, and resplendent in lingering cocoa, coffee, and grainy malt notes alike.

Overall, this is a fairly well-made version of the style, nice and roasty and full-flavoured in its bearing. Easy to drink, with a countenance that belies its lower ABV measure. Worthy of checking out, especially if you're tired of high-test stouts - I'm sure that there's somebody out there with that unfortunate affliction.

poured from a growler
dark black, light brown small head
smells roasty, sweetness, lite coffee-cocoa
taste roasty coffee, lite bitterness, clean-dry finish
very enjoyable

 

Appearance: Pretty much completely black. A rather bubbly medium tan head, more bubbly than frothy and has moderately fast dissipation, leaves behind a slight ring and a powdered dusting of surface head.

Aromatics: Wonderfully sweet with plenty of dark fruit - dates and plums are especially prominent. There are also hints of toasty caramel and a touch of vanilla.

Taste: The espresso level flavour and dark cacao bitterness are the winners in each sip. Though they are relatively stable in terms of build up and maintenance - in other words the strong coffee bitter doesn't smack you in the taste buds, like any good stout it is structured and bold. Not much of an aftertaste that lingers either.

Feel: Not overly smooth or creamy, its rather crisp on the palate and the carbonation is quite active. Body-wise it is (pardon the pun) quite stout and proud, borders on heavy but it's crispness I feel keeps it in check.

Overall: I enjoyed this stout. It was a good overall, to be truly fair to rating it I'd love the opportunity to try this stout with nitro, I can imagine it with a super cascade, and creamier head. Even without nitro I liked the boldness in the mouthfeel that carries on a bit, and is not afraid to make a stand for aroma and flavour.