Blow Out Stout
GP Brewing Co.

 

A- This pours an ever so slightly transparent/clear brown/cola color, and I can vaguely see the columns of carbonation rising to the top of the liquid. The head is thick, creamy and has most excellent retention....it is a light caramel color and provides very nice foamy lacing that sticks very well to the inside of my beer glass! Overall I really like the look but the hues could be just a little murkier.

S- Im detecting a dry grainy aroma, for some reason a slightly tinny/metallic aroma, burnt coffee, dark chocolate, deeply toasted grain, burnt bread and some yeast. Underlying all of this is a sweet lactose and/or creamed frothy aroma that adds a layer upon my nostrils. The finish is dry and slightly of hop bitterness, and overall the aromas are rather mild....nothing that stands out yet nothing that offends outside of the metal smell at the beginning.

T- I find that the general flavor of this reminds me of a malted milk chocolate bar....like a 3 muskateers in terms of sweetness! It's actually quite tasty......background notes of darker chocolate, mocha/cafe au lait, cream, caramel, yeast, toasted chestnut, slightly burnt toast, black and chocolate malts, and a finish that is sticky and lingering of char and an ever so slight hop presence. Quite nice!

M/O- Medium bodied, with velvety smooth carbonation and a rich candy bar texture, I actually quite like this and would think of this more like a Milk Stout rather than the drier traditional English variety. The drinkability factor is good, as a couple of these would flow rather well in a social setting or just to enjoy as an accompaniment to a bbq dinner! Definitely worth future samplings!

 

 

355ml can, part of the new GP Brewing mixed packs that recently arrived on Alberta bottleshop shelves. Some wildcat terminology in the branding here?

This beer pours a fairly dark, red-brick brown colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some random sudsy ejecta lace around the glass as it quickly sinks away.

It smells of toasted wheat and gritty barley, a twinge of bitter cocoa, subtle day-old cafe-au-lait, and very tame earthy, leafy, and musty hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, some genial free-range ash, bittersweet chocolate, ephemeral dry-roast coffee beans, some plain and inoffensive milkiness, and a still hard to really get a handle on earthy and weedy hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its low-key and mostly just supportive frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, nothing really poking its head in to make a party-pooping ass of itself, as such. It finishes off-dry, the toasty caramel and chocolate notes striking black gold, or something to that effect.

Overall, an easy-drinking, on the sweeter side stout, no real hop incursions to be feared here, with an equal lack of any hint of the extra point of alcohol, which makes for a mildly dangerous session offering, unless you're in the market for getting blown out. Good stuff.