The PastryArchy Edition #22: Irish Cream Dessert Stout
DuClaw Brewing Co.

 

Black in color with no light penetration. There’s a fingernail of brown on top. The aroma is amaretto, lactose, caramel, and vanilla. I’m tasting vanilla, lactose, chocolate, and amaretto. The mouth is silky, cool to the throat, and smooth.

 

 

 

 

16oz can poured into a tulip

A- pours black in color with a dark khaki colored head that has great retention and leaves some lacing behind

S- aroma kinda of smells like root beer, definitely a sassafras note to it. Undertones of chocolate, caramel, vanilla cream, light char

T- taste opens with a rootbeer note that follows the nose, followed by charred malt, chocolate, caramel candy and irish cream, that adds some vanilla sweetness. The finish gives chocolate and sweet cream

M- medium body with medium carbonation produces a creamy mouthfeel that finishes velvety and smooth

 

strong stout great sweet taste filling beer

 

 

16oz can with unreadable stamp poured into an imperial tulip pint glass at 57° Fahrenheit 9.4% ABV. The beer pours pitch black with no light penetration and sticky mocha colored head. The head recedes to a thin cap and leaves a ring around the glass. The aroma is mild with sweet notes of caramel, creamed coffee and lactose. The taste is semisweet caramel with restrained roasted malt before sweetened & creamed coffee crash in. No real bitterness, but the roast and coffee are just enough to stop things short of cloying. The mouthfeel is full bodied with less than medium carbonation and a thoroughly undry finish. No evidence of the ABV in the nose or taste. Overall, pretty well done for what it is. Plainly labeled as a dessert stout and has to be considered as such.

Poured into a chalice: color is very dark brown to black, head is tan and presents 1/2 inch thick, head dissipates to thin top/thicker ring along the glass.

Smell is quick roast, then coffee beans, some sharp booziness, cream/lactose - more stouty than sweet which is better than anticipated.

Taste has some more sweetness and 'irish cream' essence to it - full presence, stout flavor with roast, coffee, some chocolate, lighter sweet flavors but definite cream/lactose quality, and some booziness. I dont pick up the almond much, but there is some caramel. I want this to have some whiskey qualities to counter the sweetness/lactose a bit more.

Mouthfeel is very low carbonation, big sweetness, low bitterness and limited drying event at this strength.

Overall a brew that was not quite as cloyingly sweet as I thought - almond is limited, but creme and sweetness are on the order of an irish cream drink but i want a hint of whiskey.

DuClaw Brewing Co. "The PastryArchy Edition #22: Irish Cream Dessert Stout"
16 fl. oz. can coded "IRISH-19-122121 CANNED ON 01/27/22"
$3.29 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via steam of consciousness: A lovely head of dark tan foam tops an opaque brown-black body. Only a thin glimmer of mahogany brown can be seen along the base of the glass. The aroma is a little odd and I'm not sure exactly what I'm smelling. It's like almond. Is it like whiskey? I guess it is. It's also a bit like wet wood, and a touch fruity and chocolatey. It's not off-puting or anything like that, just unusual. On to the taste then... well that's a little more memorable. It does have a whiskey note to it. Is it real or a flavoring though? The label says it's brewed with Irish cream coffee, so I'm guessing the flavoring is added to the coffee beans. It's nice. It has a cream flavor to it, which I guess is really vanilla, and the coffee is mild and blended in with chocolate, caramel, and nuttiness. An alcohol content of 9.4% doesn't hurt it, and in fact helps it to come off as more authentic. Thankfully it's not as sweet as Irish cream, and it finishes mainly dry with a little bit of bitterness and some almond flavor lingering. I like it. In the mouth it's medium-full on body and gently crisp. I can sense the lactose, and although it normally bothers me it's not too bad here. The head held up OK at first but then dropped, leaving a ring of lace at the outset that now looks like the top of a mountain range that surrounds the glass. Unfortunately there's very little lacing left past that intial rise and fall. All in all I've enjoyed this beer and I'm only about 2/3 of the way through. It'll now become a slow sipper while I work my way through the paperwork that's built up on my desk. For just $3.29 for a pounder I'll buy this again if I can find any more as I think it would make a great nightcap or reading beer.
Review #7,848

Canned on 2/1/22. 16oz can poured into a tulip.

Pours almost black; small light khaki head that fades leaving decent retention and lacing.

The aromas are malt forward. Some cocoa along with some cream.

The flavors are bolder than the nose. Lots of salted caramel along with some Irish cream. Lots of almonds. Some vanilla and marshmallow. More cocoa along with some milk chocolate. Some coffee in the mix. It's sweet, but not cloyingly sweet. Moderate to low bitterness. Strong malt backbone. The alcohol is ultimately well hidden for the most part.

Mouthfeel is full-bodied with moderate to low carbonation. It's velvety, creamy, fluffy and smooth.

This is a nice brew. This has everything that you'd expect from a "Irish Cream Dessert Stout". It's big and bold while remaining restrained and balanced. I like it.

What do you know? It's another stout that looks like a stout. At least in color, which is black coffee brown. But, there's no head, nor glass lacing here, as happens with those with this much ABV. It was in a pint can and headlessly, it fit nicely into a clear Imperial pint glass. The nose picks up sweet roasted malt, but none of the expected flavorings. To taste, it's sweet, but the Irish Cream note is hard to find. The high ABV isn't very well disguised and rather than balancing the sweetness, just becomes a focal point of how diverse the two characters are, without playing very well together. The mouthfeel does appear to have some of the cream character, because this crosses the tongue smoothly, despite the eventual alcohol burn. Not bad for a heavy hitter and a decent way to get a quick buzz, but praise is slight beyond that. There's nothing reminiscent of an Irish Cream anything and it's just a little too harsh to be anyone's dessert. There are many dessert stouts that pack the similar wallop with much better taste and mouthfeel than this.

 

Heading full steam toward the spring season, there's a few days when we're all Irish, and that day is meant for this beer. DuClaw meets the all-green-day with an Irish Cream inspired stout with the dessert aspects that we expect from their PastryArchy series.

The Irish Cream Dessert Stout version of The PastryArchy kicks off with a creamy and very dark brown pour. As a dense and short blanket of foam arises, the beer's cream and coffee impressions are nearly spot-on. A sweeter and creamier scent of vanilla, coffee and caramel waft from the glass with hints of chocolate and campfire coming to mind. In similar fashion, the taste is sweet with caramel, heavy cream, French vanilla and chocolate.

The middle palate, follows suit with the same chocolate, coffee and cream medley that stirred up early in taste. But a shift toward a roasty bitterness starts to happen as the beer nears finish. Woodsy, toasty, roasty and savory with a pleasant char, the more earthy side of stout begins to exert itself.

Spicy with hints of whisky, the beer's finish is a delicate balance of sweet roast, silky smooth textures, remnants of vanilla and those spicy alcohol nuances with the hop bitterness highlighting a coffee-like flavor deep in finish and heading into a long, and bitterly smooth aftertaste.