Symmetry - Cherry Chocolate Almond
Spyglass Brewing Company

16oz undated can.

Pours opaque dark brown with a minimal head of tan. Dark chocolate, roast, and faint cherry cough syrup in the nose. Medium bodied with a sticky mouthfeel. Thin for the style. Bakers chocolate with faint cherry on the palate. Finishes fairly dry and quick.

I've had a couple Spyglass beers over the pat half year or so, and they've been generally quite good and worthy of the little bit of hype I've heard about when it comes to their output, but this is my first stout of theirs... what better way to start a journey into a brewery's darker beer than with a stout full of adjuncts? Kidding aside, I'm hoping this one will impress.

The pour is a little bit unexciting. It tumbles out of the can with a deep brown color that builds up like a nut brown ale until about half of the can is in my glass, at which time it finally starts looking like a stout... it starts doubling-down on the darkness and gains a thin but slightly-retentive head of fizzy khaki-colored foam. Some slight, soapy lace as starts to dissipate. Some wisps of foam on the surface, but overall not the best appearance lately.

The nose is honestly promising. Deep roastiness combined with a good helping of nutty almonds and some sweet dark fruit that I assume is the cherry addition. As it warms, the chocolate comes out quite a bit more and actually makes this really nice overall, but it does take a bit of time to acclimate and open up. I can tell that the flavorings used are pretty authentic, though, and there seems to be good balance. I also appreciate that it's not 11% ABV or something dumb; it's much more modest. I think the most similar beer to this (just in terms of added flavors and whatnot) that I've had would probably be Evil Twin's Imperial Biscotti Break Natale - Pretty Please With A Cherry On Top (also a cherry-chocolate-almond stout, but a much bigger one). If it's anything like that, I'll be impressed as hell.

First sip is pretty good overall; I get flavors of coffee-like roast followed immediately by cocoa powder and a hint of nuttiness. The mid-palate transition to the finish has a bit more roast, slight chalkiness, a hint of sweetness, and some cherry notes that operate in more of a generic "dark/pit fruit" mode than I expected. As it warms, however, the "cherry-ness" becomes pretty apparent; honestly very Maraschino-like to me. The feel is thin-ish for a milk stout clocking in at 7.6% ABV, I think, but it's not that bad overall. This is a pretty solid adjunct-driven stout from a small brewery known mostly for their IPAs at this point. I'd give future beers from them in this style a shot, for sure.

Can from the Packie shared with Paul
Solid black in color with a thin tan head that dissipates quickly. Big roasty milk chocolate and faint licorice. Light cherry and almonds with just enough earthy hop to counter. Sweet sticky sipper, glad I was sharing.