Mamut
Great Notion Brewing

 

 

On tap at the Imperial today.

The beer pours the expected blackish brown color, with really good head retention and considerable leaving. This beer looks great. On the nose, I pick up vanilla and chocolate, with noticeable underlying marshmallow as well. It's nice enough. The flavor profile replicates the nose pretty closely in this sweet, pastry stout, with the chocolate marshmallow flavor dominating. It's not as sweet as some of the pastry stouts I've encountered from GN thankfully, but this is still very much a dessert stout. Mouthfeel is fairly full, but with the alcohol very well integrated into the flavor profile. While sweet, it's not cloying or tiring on the finish.

A nice enough beer from GN, and I appreciate that the sweetness isn't completely over the top (as it often is with GN pastry stouts). A little bit goes a long way, but this is a nice beer from GN.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a somewhat fizzy, half finger milk chocolate head that dissipates moderately quickly to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa; does resemble a Moon Pie. Flavor is dark toasted malt, cinnamon, vanilla, milk and dark chocolate. Chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. Although Great Notion IPAs and a few other styles appear on the market periodically, I've never had the opportunity to try any of their stouts until now. I'm getting a little burned out on sweet pastry stouts and wasn't sure I was ready for this one, labelled as inspired by Moon Pies. The aroma was immediately compelling, and the first taste was great. Definitely a pastry stout echoing a known pastry, but just enough sweetness to make the resemblance. Deftly handled and gets me interested in trying some more from Great Notion. Fine dessert stout.