Chinese Rock
Earth Eagle Brewings

 

 

 

First had: on tap at Earth Eagle

This was really interesting. The beer was labeled as an "imperial gruit," and was supposedly inspired by DFH's World Wide Stout. Gruits tend to have unconventional ingredients relative to your more "typical" beer styles, but unfortunately I can't seem to find any info on what particular specialty ingredients were used to make this one.

This poured a deep dark brown, almost black and nearly opaque, with a very thin layer of off-white head that dissipated almost completely. Lots of spice in the nose, maybe ginger, nutmeg, licorice, sarsaparilla, to name a few. Taste was rich and quite unique, even compared to other gruits I've had. I'd be willing to bet that there is most likely sarsaparilla in this beer, as that flavor jumped out the most on my palate, nutmeg, anise, allspice, cola, maybe a bit of vanilla and cane sugar, and some dark malty chewiness in the background. Body was about medium, and quite appropriately so, carbonation was medium to low, the higher alcohol was quite well-hidden. A very interesting brew overall, and one of the best I've had from the state of New Hampshire.