Raim's Stout
Redgarden Restaurant and Brewery

a very basic, but really well crafted stout here, kind of a dry irish type meets a lower alcohol american stout, served up on nitro and really professionally done. the quality of the beer in here, for the most part, was very high, surprisingly so for such a new operation, and that was on display here for sure. this is slick and black, shiny but understated at the same time, with an inch of creamy nitro head on it that lasts the whole drink. it smells like a dry and dark roast, some unbrewed coffee bean nuance to it, but pretty straightforward, bitter in the flavor but without any cocoa or smoke notes that are common in these, not too dark that it makes the beer heavy or aggressive, its simple but clean and smooth to drink. maybe some oats in the mash, this has a drying, natural cereal thing in the middle, not the normal caramel malt center, more committed to the dark grain, balanced in its own way, and with a nice round creamy body, accentuated by the well done nitrogenation. very drinkable stout, textbook example of the style really, modern enough, traditional enough, impressive overall quality.