Anniversary Stout
Ithaca Beer Company

 

This is is a sparkling deep brown-black beer with a rocky, warm tan head that disappears after a few minutes. When held to the light, I can see about 2 cm into it. The aroma is moderately malty. The primary smell is mild roasted coffee with some herbs and citrus. I can detect the Ithaca yeast: dusty and earthy. The flavor exhibits a good balance between malt and hops. The aftertaste reveals carbonized sugar and semi-dark chocolate. The mouth feel is slightly alkaline. This actually has some body-- not as watery as some of the other offerings from Ithaca.
(rated Feb 5, 2007)

I thought this tasted more like a porter than a stout. It pours dark, but it appears thin in weight. The head was there after the pour, but disappeared quickly. It just didn’t have the thickness of a stout. The taste was good. I’d describe it as a coffee combined with an almost woody/chocolate flavor. The taste stays with you after swallowing.

If this were a porter perhaps I’d judge it a little higher, but for a stout it was just okay for me.

This brew poured to a dark brown color that is close to black. Has a small light tan head that seems to have great retention and has left a fair amount of lacing down the side of the glass. The aromas are very good, nice coffee and chocolate notes mixed in with a roasted to a slight burnt scent. This is a very good tasting brew, the flavors seem to really explode compared what I noticed in the nose while being very smooth. The malt is the first thing that I notice, a deep roast to a slight burnt malt flavor mixed in with coffee and chocolate flavors. A very slight bitter finish at the end but I am not sure if that would be from hops or from the slight burnt flavors I noticed earlier? Either way this is a nice tasting brew, one that is very easy drinking.

Thick black color with a light brown head that quickly goes away. Light produces a deep dark red that pokes through.

Strong coffee and licorice scent. Heavy and potend sweet malt scent. The coffee smell takes over. Hint of grape?

Dry coffeeish taste, with some sweetness to counter the bitter. Minor fruit flavor, grape and maybe a bit of cherry.

Thick mouth, foamy and remains on the tongue for a bit, but not for too long. Not overwhelming. Dry finish.

A nice, easy drinkin' stout. Solid and a bit darker than expected. A very enjoyable stout.

This beer is a thick, dark chocolate color, and when poured there is a considerable amount of caramel color foam, but it recedes pretty quickly. However a bit of froathe stays onto while drinking. You can taste a bit of chocolate in there, with the roast grains. It has some sweetness to it when drinking. The mouth feel is a thick, earthy, chocolate taste. Goes down extremely easy.

Poured into Duvel tulip.

A: Pours a dark brown with a single finger of fluffy, light tan head. Recedes pretty quickly, eventually becoming some very sparse lacing. I hope that doesn't mean this is a really strong beer, because I'm drinking this while I work...

S: Licorice, dark coffee, roasted grain (oatmeal?), hint of chocolate, earthy, bit of a rumminess.

T/M: Chocolate and grain up front, with a bit of a smoky flavor that moves into dark, roasted coffee toward the middle. Finish is long, with a brief bitterness and long, burnt tail. Tail is really, really long. Mouthfeel is a little slick.

D: No idea what the abv% is with this, but I'm not really feeling it after one of these, so it's probably around 5.5%, +/- .5%. A good, solid stout. Nothing stands out as being unique to this stout and this stout alone, but it's balanced, enjoyable, and helps contribute to make the Ithaca Winter 12-pack one of my favorite sightings of late Fall. With the Sam Adams Winter 12-pack, you have to worry about what you're going to do with all the cranberry lambics. With the Ithaca 12-pack, you can just drink it and enjoy.

A $6 growler fill exactly one week old, picked up from IBC. They said that they had a few kegs left but that it'd be gone soon.

Pours with a small but fine head that leaves a sheet of lacing that covers most of the top. Bubbles? Who knows, this is one of the blackest beers I've seen. Just barely a dark mahogany around the edges.

Smells wonderful. I wonder if this is a milk/sweet stout? Syrupy, delicately coffee aroma is very friendly. Some licorice and maybe traces of mint. Lots of chocolate.

Lots of roast in the flavor. The coffee is strong, but this is sweet and moist. Some dark chocolate as well. A tart on the finish, the hops are dominated by this malt-heavy beer but maybe contribute to the burnt finish with some bitterness. Quite a friendly beer.

Creamy mouthfeel, the finish leaves something of a moist coating and a pleasantly refreshed mouth. The carbonation is moderate and perfect for this brew, leveling off at the end. Syrupy and thick in a pleasant way.

Quite accessible and pleasing, but the coffee and sweetness get a little tiresome after one pint. Still, an appropriate seasonal, and a solid product.

The beer pours a deep, dark black color with a thick frothy tan head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is good. It has a rich, black and chocolate malt scent that is earthy with a sweet edge. The taste is good. It has a thick and sweet black/chocolate malt flavor that goes down easy and finishes smooth and chocolatey. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a full bodied beer with adequate carbonation. This is a fine seasonal. I wish it was available year round. It has an awesome chocolate flavor; very tastey.

12oz bottle obtained via trade with Shippos. Thanks for the opportunity...

Poured in an imperial pint glass, forms a 2" creamy tan head. Head fades slowly, and lacing is ok, but not great for the style. An almost opaque brew, but it does barely let some light through the deep mahogany liquid. Deep aroma of coffee and nut. Taste is sweeter than initially expected, with the coffee fading into the background (a bit) and nutty chocolate coming to the palate. Mouthfeel and drinkability are both good, a nice stout.

So today I went to MacGregor's and Beers of the World looking for regional beers. I figured that since I earlier preached local, I would do my part in practicing what I preach. The first of my regional reviews for today is Ithaca Anniversary Stout. This was poured for me at MacGregor's by the lovely Jen.
It poured a dark black. As dark as the midnight sky. The head was thin, about half a finger. The aroma was of chocolate and coffee. The malt was ever so present. Ever so wonderful. Upon tasting I notice a strong taste of dark chocolate and coffee. There was also a nuttiness to it. It went down smoothly. It had a nice milky quality to it that I particularly love. Of all stouts, I name this King.

Late 2003 release, came in a 12 pack along with Winterizer. Helluva deal. Drrp garnet red/brown with a foamy tan head that doesn't last long, but still leaves a bead down the glass. Bigtime roasted barley along with some chalky/coffee notes in the aroma - almost like an oatmeal stout.

The nost translates almost verbatim onto the palate - roasty, with some chalky oatmeal-like flavors, some lactic notes that make me think "milk stout" before finishing with a degree of mineraliness and distant hops. It actually has a fair depth of dark malty flavor behind the roastiness, and a good (albeit generic) underlying hoppiness. Slightly fizzy mouthfeel.

To me this beer is more than the sum of its parts. Something about it makes me want to seek and devour a case of it. There's nothing spectacular about any one part of it, but the combination of roastiness/chalky-oiliness/lactic with that finish is very appealing to me. Worth seeking out.

2003 release, poured with a thick tannish head and a dark ruby brown color. roasty grainy aroma with little to no hops. sweet chocolatly roasty taste doesn't have quite as thick of a mouthfeel as I was expecting very smooth though. the 7.5-8% is very nicely hidden and has a creamy sweet aftertaste. by far this is the absoulte best beer IMO that they make to date and at $6.30 a 6pack you can't beat it.

Appearance: Rich dark brown... not quite as dark as I would have expected. Thin dark tan head slipped away quickly.
Smell: Classic stout nose - malty, earthy, slightly smokey, hint of lactose (more than I expected).
Taste: Carbonation level is very nice (but courser than nitro) and helps deliver a hoppier, smokier flavor than I picked up in the nose... reminds me more of a porter, though, but with lactic stout-like highlights. Coffee flavor and alcohol warmth develop nicely as it warms.
Mouthfeel: much fuller than you pick up from the visual cues, but still more porter-like than stout-like IMO.
Drinkability: I'd enjoy sitting down with two or three of these. It's a very respectable brew, if not typically stout.

When I poured this brew, I thought I was going to be let down - the beer appeared to be somewhat thin, and there was not a typical stout head. The head consisted of suds, not the creamy thick head of other stouts. The head also disappeared quickly and left very little lacing. From there on in, the beer was impressive. The smell was more coffee than some other stouts, but the effect was pleasing to the nose and palate. The flavor was robust, with the aforementioned coffee, cocoa and oats. The beer did not taste thin and was very drinkable. Hopefully, I will be able to get this beer consistently, and get a chance to try their other brews.

A solid, flavorful stout. Classic chocolate and coffee flavors enhanced by a smooth, rich, full body. Went great with lunch, grilled roast beef on sourdough with three cheeses, grilled onion and horseradish mayo. Yum.