Meritage Stout
Field House Brewing Co.

Opaque brown-black color. The head poured a yellow-tan color almost half as high as the liquid, but quickly dropped down to a patchy skiff, leaving a few spots of lace.

Some fruit scents, most likely from the merlot grapes. Small amount of dark roasted malt under the fruit. Something is biting at my nostrils like a pepper spice. Swirling the glass kicked up a little bit of fruity funk, again probably from the grapes. There is also something fresh and minty. Overall there is much less scent than I expected.

Very light flavors. It takes a while to build on the tongue, even starting from a cool room temperature. Starts out with a fresh tart fruit. The dark roasted malt opens up and turns a bit nutty. The effect is something like a mixed fruit jelly spread over a slice of dark pumpernickel bread, or a Christmas pudding that is very light on the fruit. The aftertaste is mostly tart or sour with the dark malt. The flavor profile is incredibly light and then heads to strong malt at the end.

Not a lot of carbonation, however it still manages to build to a light foam. Much less body than I expected. The high acid level leaves my mouth feeling odd, but without the tannic astringency I expected. The text on the label ("Full Bodied", "Tannic") suggested something I didn't experience.

This is rather odd for a stout. The blended wine boosted this into a fruit beer, but even that doesn't really provide a good guide to the style. It is interesting as a one-off, but it wouldn't get a regular rotation into my cellar. I consider this a successful experiment, but I think the Merlot/Meritage wine would work better with something not as malty as a stout. The stout base would work better with something either a much more berry forward red or a lighter, fruity white. Keep experimenting.