563 Stout
21st Amendment Brewery

Review dated 7/1/2009 from the tap.

Draft at the Brewery. Nearly black in color with a tan nitro head. Aroma of roast and coffee. Flavor more of the same, a little sweeter than Guinness but not very dissimilar. Dry finish with decent carbonation level. Pretty tasty.

Appearance – this arrived with a typically deep brown stouty color that appears black unless held to a light or daytime window. There was much less head than on a typical stout. It had already broken to a patchy tiger striped pattern across the top of the glass. The beer exhibited wispy, thick lacing.

Smell – nothing impressive here, but nothing wrong either. The typical roasted, nutty smells were in less abundance than I expect for the style.

Taste – This is not a memorable beer, but it’s a solid stout. It falls on the watery side of the stout spectrum. The finish is shorter than I enjoy for a dark beer. Less heavily hopped than a stout in the pacific northwest.

Mouthfeel – again a bit on the watery, anemic side.

Drinkability – for a stout, this is drinkable but that’s not necessarily a great thing. That is to say, you could drink more of these than a typical stout because they’re lighter – the question is, would you want to? I’m not convinced.

Nice and dark with an off white head that left decent lacing. Nutty roasty aroma was followed by a riasted taste profile that leaned a bit too medicinal and sharp to me. Not as smooth and rounded as Stouts that I like tend to be. Still a decent beer and it went fairly nicely as an after lunch pint at their nice pub.