Woodline
Fox Farm Brewery

 

 

Perfectly acceptable stout nothing special.

Wait a minute. A stout that’s not barrel aged or made with peanut butter or coconut adjuncts? What kind of a world is this?

A dark pour with a two finger head leads to smells of coffee, molasses and dark chocolate. Taste follows the nose. Alcohol barely noticeable. This is a great stout. Will buy again whenever the next time is that I’m at Fox Farm.

Poured from a 16oz can stamped CANNED ON 06/24/23 to a diagonally cut snifter at 50F.
The body is black, nuff said. A minimal dark tan head forms and fades to a ring. Lacint is generous.
The aroma is musty with some whiskey notes.
The taste is dry as ash with chocolate and MIllard notes. Alcohol makes itself known but is not overpowering. Further sipping yields some fig or date notes on the finish.
The mouthfeel is oily and tongue coating but not super creamy. With all the dryness the beer would almost come off as chalky if it wasn’t for the oil and good carbonation.
I’m a sucker for a dry stout and this was excellent for me.

 

16 oz can poured into a willi becher glass. Pours pitch black with a rocky light tan head. Aroma and flavor feature dark roasted malt, bitter chocolate, coffee, smoke, and earthy hops. It's a wonderful combination of flavors. IMO it's almost but not quite smoky enough to be a rauchbier. Mouthfeel is moderately carbonated, smooth, and the 8.3% abv is well-hidden. Overall a unique and fantastic oatmeal stout.

 

Received from Roguer in an LIF related to NBS BIF #14
Poured very dark, nearly black with a short light brown head. Looks like a stout!
Aroma was roasted malts, rather charred but not bitter. Some coffee and or chocolate was in the mix, no hops that I could smell.
The taste is quite good for an oatmeal stout - not bitter but wood char is there, some bakers chocolate, tons of mats.
The feel was less creamy than anticipated for it being an oatmeal stout (That's one of the reasons for adding oats, right?) but for a non BA stout, I thought it was perfectly appropriate.
OA, very glad to have tried this and it serves as a valid reminder to get back to the 'normal' beers once in a while. Good beer!

Woodline from Fox Farm Brewing. Received from @Roy_Hobbs in BIF #14. 16 oz can. Stored at home at 38 degrees. Reviewed 28/10/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Marked on bottom “CANNED ON 08/25/21”. Served at 56.3 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 59.9 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
First pour – Amber brown (SRM 18), nearly opaque.
Body – Deep Brown (SRM 30), opaque. When rear-lite, same, although some light does penetrate the edge and appears red.
Head – Large (Maximum 4.5 cm, aggressive center pour), fawn, high density, fair retention, diminishing to a seven to ten mm crown fed by effervescence and a complete rocky cap. Second pour produces a dense one cm head.
Lacing – Good. High density bands of extremely tiny bubbles.
Aroma – 4.25 – Initially roasted malt, a hint of chocolate, light oats, and no hops, no yeast. The roasty aroma lasts for the entire can, the chocolate and oats fade away.
Flavor – 4 – Begins with the taste of chocolate and weak but bitter malt, a little dark fruit lurking, no hops, no yeast. From the middle on, the malt is the sole flavor. No ethanol (8.3 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma. Light gastric warming. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, more watery than creamy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 Somewhat emaciated for a stout but otherwise decent – distinctly roasty on nose and tongue. After some transitory initial tastes and smells, it settles into bitter maltiness with a few pale ghosts of ethanol breezing by the taste buds in the final swallows

 

 

Beautiful, classic stout: dark brown, nearly black, with a nice dark tan head. Production, retention, and lacing are all quite good.

Roasty nose, with hints of red grape, nuts, dark bread, molasses, dark fruit, and toffee.

Smooth and creamy on the palate, right off the bat. It's impressively smooth, leaning toward moderate-to-full bodied, vice the near "chewiness" of some big stouts - but that works in its favor here, given the flavor profile. Medium length finish; moderate to high bitterness, but the flavor profile is accented, not dominated, by hop expressions.

Toasty with light char up front, along with caramel, dark bread, and toffee. A bit of honey-like sweetness as it moves to the middle. Nutty middle with growing char as the minor sugary notes fade, accompanied by bitter piney and citrus notes from the hops (very much second fiddle, however; this is not a black IPA, and isn't even a particularly hoppy stout). Very nutty finish; dark coffee lingers in the aftertaste.

Really lovely imperial oatmeal stout.