Not Stirred: Dark & Stormy
Springdale Beer Co.

 

Pours tea colored with a 1/2 inch cream colored head, which fades to a wisp. Minimal lacing. Slight haze.

Aroma is funky, sour grapes, tea, ginger.

Taste is sour grapes, tea, ginger, oak, acidic.

Light bodied, light carbonation. Tart finish.

If you like sours, this is one to try.

L: Brown with a amber/ruby tint and a thin, quickly dissolving ivory head and almost continuous very small bubbles that look like a carbonation version of smoke rings
S: yeasty barnyard funk, oak leaves, lemon & orange zest, a subtle sweet honey-like aroma, no ginger
T: lemon, bitter orange, lime zest, oak tannins, hay, yeast and stables, no ginger
F: tart and tingly on the tongue, mild carbonation, with a clean, dry, "sandy" finish
O: A very nice barrel aged sour, but not reminiscent of a Dark & Stormy.
There are only three ingredients in a Dark & Stormy (black rum, ginger beer, lime juice) and this beer is missing two those. The lime is there, but no rum flavor and no noticeable ginger.
A perfectly acceptable sour ale, but not what the label advertises.

Pours hazy, amber in color with 1/4 inch head. Taste is big sour mix, light ginger, light barrel. High carbonation, sour with light bodied. Tastes like a poorly made dark and stormy. There is too much sour mix and not enough ginger. The ginger taste is more of a powdered ginger than fresh ginger--or ginger beer in cocktail. Love the cocktail but this does not do it justice.

From the brewer: A stormy blend of barrel-aged beer aged on freshly shaved ginger chases the clouds away. (I triple checked the quote.) Aged a minimum of six months; Oak-aged beer with ginger; bottle number 01957.

Dark amber color and virtually clear. The initial head, while small, appeared to have some staying power when compare to the other sours from Springdale. It still settled to no bubbles (and no lace) but it took a few minutes longer.

Initial smell is like a chocolate covered graham cracker. I don't pick up sour notes nor ginger at the start, but the smell in a couple of minutes does contain a subtle tartness.

Think soured ginger ale, the real kind. What is odd about this beer is the initial pour gave the impression of darker bock-like beer. The color of the brew was surprisingly light, albeit a darker amber. There is a touch of darker malt sweetness, almost like lemon marmalade on darker toast. Subsequently, the ginger softly defines this lemony beer. Longer aftertaste, but it leans to the predictable.