Emerald Heart
Rusty Rail Brewing Company

Plastic cup at monkey bar
Black with nice fluffy head.
Smell is very minty and so is the taste.

 

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a Dogfish Head tulip

L: Dark, dark pour... nearly black with 2 fingers of mocha colored head. Nice ring of lacing.

S: Mint, mint, and more mint. Some dark cocoa and roast to go along with.

T.F: Semi-sweet up front. Roasted grains, dark chocolate, and a ton of mint. Some bitterness from the roast and dark cocoa... so not cloying. The mint is perhaps overdone and dominates the other flavors. Medium to light bodied with smooth carbonation.

O: This drinks kind of like the 'Thin Mint' cookies you'd get from your local drug lord (i.e. the Girlscouts). The mint dominates, but it's still an interesting beer. Wouldn't want more than 1 of them but fun to try something new.

 

 

Pours a deep muddy brown with a tan head.

Smells of peppermint, chocolate, bitter herb.

Pretty much straight up mint chocolate. Kind of a peppermint patty flavor with some bitter herb hops. It’s not great but not bad, one off.

 

 

I actually like this beer and I'm kind of puzzled as to how people could rate it so low. Pretty much straight forward in both smell and taste reminiscent to a peppermint Patty very mild chocolate soft undertones and a pretty intense peppermint bite. Couldn't see myself enjoying more than one in a sitting but it definitely wasn't offencive or too strong for my taste.

 

I have enjoyed drinking Rusty Rail B.C.'s beers for a while, but especially since my last press junket to cover the inauguration of the River Rat Ale Trail, a series of beer drinking destinations along the northern part of the Susquehanna River, here in PA.

From the Bottle: "Mint Chocolate Stout".

I Pop!ped the cap & began a slow, gentle C-Line pour into the awaiting glass. I was pleasantly surprised when it began a pseudo-cascade & so I slowed up to allow it to do its thing, which is my thing. It settled into to-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-brown head with excellent retention, slowly falling away to a modicum of its former self while leaving nice lacing in its wake. Color was solidly Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing ZERO light penetration. Nose was at once minty & chocolaty & I was put in mind of either a liquefied York Peppermint Patty or a liquefied Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, I just could not decide which. Either way … YUM! I am not big on sweets, per se, but I like dark chocolate & I always like mints. This seemed to have been brewed with me in mind. Mouthfeel was big, full & creamy & I was surprised that this was not another N2 pour, it was that creamy. The taste was very minty & very chocolaty, but unfortunately not IAW style specs, so I had to dun it in the "Smell" & "Taste" categories. Peppermint Patty? Thin Mint? Tossup, tosspot! Finish was cool, dry & minty. Man, did I just ingest mouthwash? I jest! But, it was just that good that I recommend giving it a try. YMMV.

Good mint smell, but I'm not sure that mint and beer go together, at least not for me... Nice twist though! Leaks b-day weekend in Pittsburgh! Woo hoo!