Farrow Turbo Stout
Sea Change Brewing Co.

A- Pours a typical dark brown base color, but this one has tones of plum or prune juice shading. Shows a lovely tan coloured head that is densely foamed, almost like a whipped topping and shows excellent retention, starting around 3 fingers in thickness and settling into a full finger worth of froth....funny enough, when I poured this, the head was rather abstract and full of gaping air pockets.....i didn't think it would settle into something so nice! As for lacing, well it too is rather impressive, showing a sticky character, that latches around the inside of the glass in an artistic flowing kind of way. I can see fine columns of fizz racing towards the top of the glass too, helping to maintain its fabulous head over time.

S- Right on! I detect many of the aromas that I was hoping to find wafting in the immediate area.....loads of bitter cocoa/dark chocolate, dark roast coffee grinds, vanilla bean, creamy mocha, marshmallow richness, slight smokiness, dried fig fruitiness, and an overall background that contains yeast, dough, brown sugar and spice laced pastry! Aside from all of this, we do find that there are still traditional notes of chocolate and/or black malts, alongside slight bitterness from hop usage....very nice!

T- The overall flavors of this one are that of a fairly expected, stable stout, but with some added sides that none of which take the drivers seat. I definitely am getting dry, bitter cocoa powder, some unsweetened dark chocolate, creamy unsweetened coffee, vanilla bean richness, hints of dark toffee, heavy dairy cream, heavily roasted barley malt, hints of dried dark fruit, yeasty bread and a finish that is grainy dry and of muted hop pellet bitterness, which lingers softly on the palate

M/O- This is a very creamy drinking stout, with the carbonation being wee tight and mellow on the palate. The alcohol is well hidden in this reasonably full bodied brew, and I find it to be a nice easy going session type too...I could easily enjoy a couple of these in a sitting. Would get this again and recommend!

473ml can - made (in cahoots with local sandwich and coffee chain darlings Farrow) with cronuts, lactose, and vanilla, this is (maybe) the very embodiment of a pastry stout, so I guess I should have added it as a Sweet/Milk stout, but, meh, I'll fix that later. Or not.

This beer pours a murky, dark orange-tinted brown colour, with three hefty fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly creamy tan head, which leaves a bit of arced lightning profile lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of roasted chocolate malts, those dry vanilla cookies I had as a kid, almost expired milk, and some subtle earthy, musty, and a floral noble hoppiness. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, that weird low-sugar Euro-chocolat, vanilla extract (real or imitation, I cannot discern), a hint of mixed Timbit sweetness, and more well-understated leafy, herbal, and dead floral hop bitters.

The carbonation is fairly active in its palate-pinging frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and generally smooth, with a sense of roasted acridity maybe taking things down a notch or so, at this particular point in the process. It finishes on a downward, dry spiral, which is ok, as I was expecting something akin to a tooth-aching, sweet mess.

Overall - this is an agreeable enough version of the, let's just say style, as it is easy to put back, the extra buck-fiddy of ABV nowhere to be seen, and now I want to cue up some Turbonegro, because, well, the witching hour, she approaches.