Black Hand
Speakeasy Ales & Lagers

 

 

 

A: opaque, although when held to the light, it appeared crystal clear; cola brown in color with medium brown highlights; less than a 1 finger khaki head that receded quickly to a thick, big bubbled ring (it was close to the end of e keg); no lacing;

S: milk chocolate and deeply roasted grains;

T: milk chocolate is predominant with deeply roasted grains in the background; finish is mildly bitter;

M: medium bodied; light to moderate carbonation; moderately dry finish;

O: not really my style, but they nailed the milk chocolate, which was the whole point;

 

Nice chocolate taste

 

Poured a dark chocolate color with a 1F head in a Stone Snifter.

Aroma: sweet chocolate, roasted malt, cacao.

Taste: more intense than the aroma.Deep milk chocolate- cocoa and roasted malt. Sweeter with warming.

Excellent finish: lightly bitter, roasted malt.

This is the first beer I Have tasted from the Brewer. A great intro. Deep chocolate flavor.
I will look for another bottle.

 

Chocolate milk!

 

 

03/19/2016

I haven't had a beer by Speakeasy in years so seeing this limited edition bomber carry a decent price-tag in a nearby store was a nice surprise. Gorgeous label design as usual for the brewery with old-school '50s film noir style art and very solid typography and layout that catches the eye quite handily.

Pour is an extravagant showing of utter deep blackness capped by an eggshell-colored, sort of off-white foamy head that retains at a solid finger after dissipating over the course of 5-7 minutes in the glass. Lace is a solid, filmy sheet. Pretty nice looking for sure.

Nose is deep with cocoa, slightly vinous red and dark fruit notes and medium-kilned, roasty malts. Some toffee and vanilla as well. Pretty basic but very robust and quite well-defined.

Initially hits on the palate with a shock of sweet, milk chocolate before finishing off with vanilla, crème brûlée and café au lait. The lactose helps immensely here, rounding everything out and attracting a lot of like flavors together. Some slight, roasty malt notes help keep the beer grounded in the stout category, but this is, overall, quite a sweet and decadent endeavor. A dessert beer, for sure! One of my only issues is that the lactose leaves a weird, acidic (carbonic acid maybe?) taste on the tongue if you sip and forget about it for a couple minutes. Seems like an area which calls for slight improvement, for sure.

Feel is rather amorphous with a satisfying low-leaning carbonation that takes excellent advantage of the additional ingredients. Very well-balanced with impressive depth. An open-ended palate allows a lot of different interpretations of the flavors on order, but they definitely seem to come off as solidly in the realm of a "sweet stout." Quite satisfying with an evolving palette of flavors that come together quite nicely over the course of each sip. Good work, Speakeasy!

 

22 oz. Bomber

Pours a very nice black color, with some very nice carbonation, which leaves a very nice thick/creamy one-finger light tan head, which leaves some nice small islands and sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with lots of dark stuff, with some vanilla. The taste is very nice malty, chocolaty, toffee, coffee, some vanilla. Medium body, with a pretty nice dry/bitter finish. Overall, this is a very nice brew. It's been awhile since last I've had anything from this brewery.

Pours a half finger of tan head on a black body.
The aroma is chocolate, roasted malt and milk.
The taste is dark chocolate and coffee bitterness, milk and malt sweet, really great.
The texture is smooth and soft.
Wonderful.

 

This grew on me, and much better once it hit room temperature. Smooth, creamy, good drinkability. Black with retained head. Good for a milk stout.

 

A- The bottle itself is bold and looks like something of substance! The beer pours a dark chocolate color that reminds me of cola at the same time....it appears to be clear and the carbonation is fizzy in both sound and appearance...quickly disappearing and leaving little to no head....there isnt much lacing to speak of either....overall not a super impressive looking milk stout but I've got much higher expectations going forward!

S- Aromas are very rich and robust overall, with initial smells of heavy high grade cocoa/dark chocolate. Also, there is background aromas of bready yeast, malt sweetness and just slight hints of dark dried fruit, such as a date or something similar. No hop bitterness on the finish.

T- Flavors follow the aromas closely but with added zest....fresh cocoa, cola hints, bittersweet bakers chocolate squares, dark roast coffee, cream and licorice root. The finish is just slightly bitter but not in a hoppy version...more of a drying character...very nice, not overly rich, but plenty flavorful!

M/O- This is medium bodied with a fair bit of effervescence and the higher than average alcohol content is very well hidden! This goes very well with a chocolate pudding cake slice and as the label suggests, the black hand has taken me prisoner....it will be upon you too! Highly drinkable....easy to enjoy more than one of these in a sitting!

 

Bottle poured into a Speakeasy Ales & Lagers Snifter

A: Pours dark brown, basically black, no light passes through, with a frothy mocha brown head that settles to a light layer and laces well.

S: Roasty malt, coffee, bittersweet dark chocolate, some lactose sweetness, and faint dark fruit.

T: Roasty malt, bittersweet and dark chocolate, a little coffee, lactose sweetness, earthy, and faint dark fruit.

M: Medium to full body, moderately low carbonation, silky smooth.

O: Very enjoyable milk stout.

 

Good beer. Not too bitter for a chocolate stout. Nice sweetness. Enjoyed this a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

22oz bottle - rather dark leanings, for both its theme and imagery in its label rendering.

This beer pours a solid black abyss, with faint basal red cola edges, and a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some chunky, hanging lug nut lace around the glass as it very, very slowly seeps away.

It smells of bready caramel malt, strong milk chocolate, a bit of wet ash, faint black licorice, and ethereal earthy, dirty hops. The taste is grainy caramel malt, hard toffee, gritty bittersweet cocoa, milk sugar, root beer syrup, hints of cafe-au-lait, suggestions of muddled tart dark orchard fruit, and more wan earthy, leafy, and lightly perfumed hops.

The carbonation is quite laid-back, just a plain, earnest frothiness abounding, the body a sturdy medium-heavy weight for the style, and fairly smooth and creamy, earning an 'aware of the hallmarks of what a milk stout should feel like' gold star. It finishes off-dry, and not as sweet as one might have imagined, the milky chocolate receding, while the grainy and slightly sour malt plants its stake.

An interesting stout, and something of a shape-shifter of a brew, the initial malt-shop cocoa sweetness experiencing a metamorphosis of sorts by the end-game, which is much drier in comparison. Easy to drink, and hard to dissect - one of the better combinations of beer metrics that I've yet to come across.

 

Appearance- black color, no head
Smell- sweet chocolate
Taste- chocolate, pretty light but very good
Mouthfeel- full bodied
Drinkability- I thought it was very good. Nice and refreshing. Very good

Had this from a cask at a pub on Bleeker Street in NYC. It's pitch-black with slight brown head that dissipates pretty quickly. Smells strongly and pleasantly of molasses. Tastes sweet at first, but not sticky or treacly. Taste fades to a less sweet, but still pleasant, malty flavor with a very slight hint of alcohol. The most disappointing thing is the mouthfeel, which is a bit weak and on the watery side. But it's such a minor critique, and the mouthfeel is still above average. The finish is smooth. I would have this beer every time. Makes for a great first drink of the night.

 

 

This is the second season for this awesome beer from Speakeasy of San Francisco. The cacao nibs and lactose are sourced from a high end chocolatier, TCHO in Embarcadero, SF. The cacao nibs are introduced twice in the brewing process, the chocolate malts are stripped off of their husks, and the hopping is delicately balanced to really bring the cocoa taste forwards and afters! A very delicious and malty beer that makes you remember ones' childhood chocolate love. Definitely a chocolate lovers delight!