Gara
Gara Guzu

Black and opaque, with a tight, long-lasting head. An aroma of malt and prunes; not pronounced, but pleasant. The beer’s taste is reminiscent of dark fruit, but is surprisingly light and complex. Mouthfeel is a tad rough for the style, adding interest to the taste.

 

 

 

 

L - It had been in the fridge for a few weeks so was entirely settled. Though I thought I noticed a layer of yeast in the bottom before I opened it. I thought that would be unusual, a bottle-conditioned stout. I opened it and it went off like a fire hydrant, covering me, my PC and desk in beer. Got the bottle over a pint glass and salvaged the rest, 5 straight inches of foam. 5 minutes later when pretty settled I held the glass up to the light it is VV dark chestnut, in other light it's effectively black. Now it has a 1/2" tan head, very slowly receding - looks ok.
S - Very toasty, as you might expect. But something of a sour hint too. Feared it might be off.
T - I'm not a regular stout drinker but it's pretty good. Toasty, rich, perhaps a hint of smoke.
M - Unfortunately the blow-up might have lost lots of CO2. There's still some head on top but the beer itself comes over as slightly lifeless and hence thin - despite being 6.4%
O - Shame it blew-up. Excl CO2 issues it was really quite promising. I wanted to check the dregs of the bottle for yeast sediment so added 25ml of water and poured it into a shot-glass. There clearly was major sediment in it; despite the lable stating it's filtered and pasteurised. So maybe I got unlucky with this bottle.