Tropical Stout
Granville Island Brewery

Granville Island Brewing 'Tropical Stout' @ 7.6% , served from a 650 ml bottle
A-pour is cola brown from the bottle to almost black in the glass with a small thin tan head leaving a spotty lace along the pint
S-roasted caramel
T-tropical ? I taste molasses
MF-ok carbonation , medium body
Ov-somewhat weak beer , possible shelf turd
pprost LampertLand

650ml bottle - made with molasses, I guess that makes it 'tropical'.

This beer pours a pretty solid black, with scant basal amber edges, and four fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent monster arising from the abyss profile lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of roasted, bready and doughy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, reduced brown sugar syrup, some muddled dark orchard fruitiness, a hint of cafe-au-lait, and faint earthy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, chalky chocolate (I know), crusty treacle, day-old coffee grounds, some red berry-forward fruity notes, a suggestion of anise spice, and more well-understated leafy, herbal, and gently lit-up floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly restrained in its bored-seeming frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, with a nice airy creaminess arising as things warm up a tad at this point in the process. It finishes off-dry, the malt and cocoa flavours predominating.

Overall - this seems to be one of the better offerings in their Small Batch series in recent memory. Nice and frooty, but not particularly sweet, which is nice. Add in the essentially hidden extra 2 points and change of ABV, and we've got a worthy contender here.