Shadowy Pact
Wellington Brewery

 

355 mL bottle from the LCBO; one of four in their latest 'Welly ReBooted' sampler. Best before Mar 14 2018 and served slightly chilled. Love the artwork on this one.

Pours a deep, dark mahogany brown colour with scarlet red highlights, crowned with one inch of frothy, light beige-coloured head. It recedes slowly but surely over the next five minutes or so, coating the glass with a smooth layer of sticky lacing as it is reduced to a creamy-looking cap and collar. Looks great to me. Lots of caramelized malts on the nose, with subdued notes of mocha, hazelnut and hot cocoa. Maybe a hint of vanilla in there, too.

The flavour profile is decidedly dry overall, in contrast to the aroma which was at least somewhat sweet. There's light notes of toffee and molasses at the front end, but they're succeeded by a much drier, ashy back end that blends together slight hints of cocoa powder and earthy coffee grounds. I'm still getting a touch of vanilla, too, but it's all erased from the palate in the wake of a dry, vaguely metallic aftertaste. Light-medium in body, with low carbonation levels and a slick, smooth, slippery texture on the tongue that makes this light stout extremely satisfying to sip. A patently sessionable beer - this single longneck bottle seems a bit insufficient.

Final Grade: 3.91, a B+. Wellington's Shadowy Pact is a fine Irish-style dry stout, one that I'd take over your standard Guinness any day of the week. This one packs more flavour into the same abv, while retaining a luxuriously smooth texture and excellent drinkability. Like their classic County Dark Ale, this is a quality, traditional sort of ale that makes for a polite, dignified quaff. In the Ontario market, there isn't a lot of competition within this style, so I'd love to see this one at the LCBO in a single tallboy format at some point in the future.

 

 

355 ml bottle served reasonably cool into a Guinness Pint glass. Bottle #4 of 4 for the Wellington Rebooted pack #3.

Appearance - pours a very dark brown, near black in color. Slick and oily looking and a finger of quick receding dark tan head comes to rest on top of the beer. Minimal lacing and obviously difficult to see through with the color being so dark.

Smell - Chocolate, plenty of roasty aromas. Hints of coffee and a little smokey. A hint of something metallic.

Taste- Plenty of roast, coffee, leather, peat, with a subtle vanilla and caramel combo that lends just enough sweetness to keep this reasonably balanced. Very good and quite flavorful for the style.

Mouthfeel - Smooth and slick, carbonation is soft and body is a little fuller than others in this style.

Overall - With good flavor intensity, this is a very fine example of an irish Dry stout that matches up well with better known and more Irish competition. Certainly some form of Shadowy pact must have been made in order to create this fine specimen.