Unholy
Hydra Beer Co.

Hydra Unholy Sweet Stout, 6.7% ABV, 30 IBU. Pours thin and black, with a slight head on a careful pour. Nose is malt. Taste is sweet roasted malt. OK mouthfeel, overall an OK beer though not much flavor. This is a local beer, so may have to give it another try.

 

A: Upon some warming a glass dominating dark khaki-coppery head fills the vessel. Large porous voids with a spongey texture produces a thick coating on the vessel. The coloring is dark and viscose from the bottle, of a dark and roasted nature. Head longtivity is perhaps to lengthy impeding my anticipating desire for tasting results.

S: Sweet dry chocolate powder with strong hints of creamy vanilla and lacotose. Softly roasted barley grains and with a milky nature of very good proportions. Beautiful roasted barley and campfire ash.

T: Soft and silky bitterness is bittersweet on the tongue with loads of vanilla and lactose. Sweet roasted chocolate and cocoa with a roasty sweetness of caramel. Juicy dark plums add fruity highlights balanced with some fresh roast coffee.

M: Light to medium body has a creamy texture with a soft carbonation. Nice roasty bite of coffee beans coat the tongue.

O: A beautiful presentation of roasted coffee beans and vanilla sweetness. Holds your attention with a very good balance of sweet and roasty malts and flavor. Silky roastiness great drink-ability.

12oz undated bottle poured into a Duvel tulip glass at fridge temp 6.66% ABV. The beer pours dense black with mocha brown head. The aroma is milk sugar and slight roast. The taste is straightforward textbook milk stout. It starts smooth with a bit of roast and then finishes with vanilla and roasty bitterness cancelling each other out. Mouthfeel is medium to thin bodied, adequately carbonated and slightly sweet in the finish. Overall, nice but not great. The vanilla listed on the label can only be found by looking deeply and could have more to do with power of suggestion than presence.

 

 

Roasty, Coffee, Lactose, Smoke

Black as death with a super creamy, three-fingered mocha-colored head. Blissful vanilla in the nose is joined by some marshmallow, cocoa, slight roast, and lactose. The carbonation is a bit flat, but the body is firm with some viscosity to it. Flavors layer on the palate beginning with a tangy roastiness, unsweetened cocoa, bitter coffee, a touch of caramel and dry breadiness. And the finish has some oat starchiness, more vanilla, and fermented-out lactose sugar with a hint of smoke. Unholy is a damn fine Sweet Stout.

As reviewed in BeerAdvocate magazine #121 (February 2017).

Contract brewed by Brau Bros according to Hydra's specifications. Are these guys simply a phantom brewery? I suppose Mikkeller does some of the same stuff.

Pours a deep dark chocolate much like Moo Joos actually, and has a beige 2 finger head.

Sugary sweet lactose on the nose, with an abundant aroma of roast malts. Slight vanilla extract, and cream aromas.

Oatmeal, followed by adjuncty lactose and roast malts. Faint vanilla extract on the finish. As its drank more, a bitter black day-old coffee ground flavor comes out.

Feel is milky, smooth, with biting carbonation on the back half.

Overall, a supremely sub-par stout. The only interesting aspect is the vanilla which is pure extract. Next.