Hawkshead Organic Stout
Hawkshead Brewery /

Dark brown color , medium beige head. Aroma of coffee, bread ,and roasted caramel with light hoppy notes. Coffee and roasted malt in taste. Good beer.

 

 

 

 

500ml bottle, best before Feb 2012. The label indicates that this is an Oatmeal stout, and organic all the same.

This beer pours a very dark cola hue, approaching black, with muted edges, and two fingers of tight foamy beige head, which leaves a nice atoll of lace around the glass as it fades to, um, well almost-black. It smells of roasted toffee, bitter coffee, baker's chocolate, and mild leafy, earthy hops. The taste is lightly toasty, grainy malt, a sweet sort of chocolate, consistent bitter coffee grounds, and nice evenly bitter woody, earthy hops. The carbonation is a mite bit on the zippy side, out of sort for the expected soft caress of the oats, the body medium weight, and suffering somewhat from an extension of the pushy bubbles that borders on a metallic astringency. It finishes off-dry, the lingering malt still quite affected by the twin-axe attack of hop and bubble burn (see: my tongue).

Well flavoured enough, but it's kind of hard to see past the big hole that is the mouthfeel - this just doesn't slide down agreeably, whether creamily, slinkily, or smoothly. Shame about that.

Decent, standard English stout. Organic is good and all, but it doesn't necessarily mean the end result will taste any better.

Thick, black body, quite cloudy. Nice, off-white head. Roasted malts, light coffee and chocolate. Fairly standard stout nose, nothing special. This carries through to the taste - big roasted malts, light hops, coffee and milk chocolate. A bit bitter. Smooth, slightly cream body. Light oily feel. A good, sessionable stout, but nothing spectacular. I could put away a few of these, but nothing makes this stand out. Good, but for the price I pay, this is a treat.

Poured into an imperial nonic deep dark brown with a thin quick to fade off white head atop.Subtle roast and woody tones in the nose,as the beer warmed the aromas seemed to pop out a little more.Roasr and coffee flavors with just a hint of vanilla-like sweetness,a little thin and prickly in the mouth.A subtle but nicely flavored stout,I would like to try nitro dispensed to get a more creamy feel.

A 500ml bottle with a BB of May 2011, so it's just out of date. Label describes it as bottle conditioned. Contains barley, wheat and oats.

Poured into a Sam Smith's pint glass. A very dark brown hue; appears black unless held to the light. Yields a huge head of creamy light-brown foam with good staying power - this eventually subsides to a surface layer. Aroma of roasted malt with faint burnt notes and hints of liquorice, dried fruit, chocolate and coffee.

Tastes of dark, roasted malt with a mild bitterness. Subtle notes of chocolate, dried fruit and liquorice. Overtones of citrus hops are discernible in the background, culminating in a dry bitter finish. Mouthfeel is rich and smooth, with tingly carbonation. Quite astringent, with an aftertaste of roasted malt.

A decent stout - the roasted malt and coffee flavours are restrained but pleasant. Nicely crafted, and worth sampling if you come across it.

On cask at The Rake in London. From notes.

A - Poured with a bubble bath beige head with very loose bubbles on a black body that had dark red edges. Some mild visible carbonation I think. Left no lacing but a ring of bubbly head retention.

S - Oaty and roasty with some chocolate too. Quite inviting.

T - Some mild roasty notes with a touch of coffee. Mild but nice.

M - No carbonation, light body, and a slightlybitter finish.

O/D - Not a bad stout. Tasty and mild. Good for long term seshes. Worth a shot but nothing to hunt down.