Red Nose Bandit Stout
Pacific Western Brewing Company

 

 

 

Cariboo Brewing's 'Red Nose Bandit Stout' @ 8.0% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for under $5
A-pour is a light cola brown from the bottle to a dark brown/almost black in the glass with a small beige head leaving a spotty lace film along the pint after every sip
S-sweet smelling cause of the booze
T-booze , rough not smooth
MF-pop like carbonation , what body
Ov-don't bother , a one & done
prost LampertLand

650ml bottle, an odd take on the Christmas seasonal offering, by turning Rudolph into a purported thief.

This beer pours a clear, dark orange-brick amber hue, with two fingers of puffy, loosely puffy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some random paint splatter lace around the glass as it quickly dissolves. Pretty thin appearance for a purported stout.

It smells of bready, kind of crackery and grainy pale malt, a hint of sour cream, mildly acrid bruised black orchard fruit, earthy yeast, slight coffee-tinged milk chocolate, and weak weedy, leafy hops. The taste is doughy, almost sugary caramel malt, a bland dark fruitiness, way-too prevalent yeast, chalky cocoa, sour cream crullers, ethereal stale coffee, still understated leafy, earthy hops, and a subtle metallic booziness.

The carbonation is quite fizzy and frothy, but in a generally easygoing manner, the body a decent medium weight, and more or less smooth, a tiny alcohol wisp the only minor threat. It finishes well off-dry, the cheap chocolate sweetness growing as it warms.

I can totally see, upon first impression, how one might consider this to not be a stout, as so claimed front and center on the bottle label, and the overall look doesn't help matters. But, in the end, this has enough chocolate and caramel weightiness, and a nice, well-integrated warming, that I'm not averse to holding my tongue for the time being, before other voices chime in.