Stoutmaker.beer

Have seen this one around for a while now, but haven’t gotten around to it. I have heard good things, and I have heard some not so flattering comments about it. Lets see.

The pour starts things off with a thin tannish head, nice, but thin. It didn’t stick around long at all. Barely long enough to clip a pic of it.

I would color this porter a murky deep brown. Not black for sure, and beyond hazy. But, that’s perfectly fine with me. Lots of times when chocolate or cocoa is used you get a haze.

As I start to explore this beer, I find there really isn’t much of anything here. I really am struggling to find… anything. Nothing but the faintest of faint chocolate note. No hop. No yeast. No grain.

In fact there is so little here, I am thinking to myself that it must be too cold. Or my smeller is off today. So I pour some off to my taster glass to warm it up. Nope. Nothing. I pour a different beer to check my nose. But we are good there.

It is soo nothingness, that it seems fake. But I’ve tried everything,, but just the slightest chocolate is all I can muster.

Moving on to the taste. Well, There is about the same amount of chocolate taste as there is in the aroma. Almost nothing. But at least there are some grainy malts to go with it this time. And some background roasting going on. Way late in the taste there is a hop flavor that comes. Just noticeable, but there. I expecting a sweeter beer I think. But it is not that. At all.

I do like the bittering here. You almost miss it, because your still trying to decipher how to react at how subtle every taste is, but there is what I’d call a firm bittering. And that murkiness? Yea you can feel it on your tongue. Like cocoa powder in a more than light, but not medium body.

I really don’t know what to make of this beer. I could certainly drink 10 of these right here right now. But, I’m not sure I’m actually a fan. The light flavors, just don’t seem to play together quite right. But I’m sure I would learn to like this.

But I am scoring it as I like it right now, and I just cant give it more than a 2 out of 5. It just has nothing.

Got a Porter up on the block today. A smoked porter. Karben4 Brewing.

As usual, I always mention up from for beers like this, that i usually DO NOT like smoked beers. But I never turn one down either. So lets get on with it.

Right out of the gate there is no head, foam or anything other than black liquid pouring from the bottle. In the glass though as you may spy in the pic, there is decent amount of bubbling or effervescence in it. And from that pour I start getting the aromas.

Not the band-aidy phenolic smoke smells,, but something in the range of salami or smoked meat. Thats definitely a plus. No hops or yeast, but a good malty grain backbone for sure. It sure is promising for a smoked beer.

I have prepared myself enough to taste it. And am perplexed at how good this smells, that there is so very little in taste. If I were to close my eyes (which I did) I would swear this is some sort of chocolate Porter.

Oh the smokey notes are there, but they are just that.. notes. They are so far back and downplayed that I bet some people wouldn’t even notice them. Dark fruity plums seem to be a big factor here too. Again no noticeable hop presence. And probably could stand the slightest more bittering than what it has,, but thats just me.

The one thing that you cannot ignore though, is the gloopy body. Remember how it poured so lifeless,, well thats the way it feels too. Just dead sweet on the tongue. And that may be the reason it feel just under bittered. Get some carbonation on this thing, and I think you have a winner.

I was surprised how much I liked this Smoked Porter as thats not my thing, but its really so subtly smoked that it worked well. But the almost dead flatness and heavy mouth is really disappointing cause you just know  they were thiiis close to nailing it.

Would love to give it more, but as it stands, 2 out of 5 on untappd.

PS: I’m gonna go mix this with a fizzier amber and see if I can coax it back to life.

Been happy with the Avery beers, so was glad to see this Out of Bounds American Stout.
As you can see in the pic, it pours a very nice thick tan head that hung around for a while but much thinner.
It is black, if your are super picky maybe extra extra extra brown, either way, nice.

Right as you pour the aromas start blasting you,, but not the burnty black roast or coffee malt you would expect from something described as an American Stout. I get roast barley and a grainy or biscuity thing. Can’t quite put my finger on it,, but it’s good, very good.
Could be a very very faint old world hop mingling back there. The old earthy kind. And that good as well!

On first taste I immediately understand what I was smelling and why I liked it!  I think they put American Stout on lable for marketing, but this… this fine beer is an Americanized Tropical Stout.
I say Americanized because there isn’t much for yeast interaction here, but damn folks… It hits everything right down the line for Tropical Stout.
Sweeter, roasty but not crazy, lower bitterness.
A body that’s edging into stoutsville, but stays just shy of it making this an all year beer, especially with the 6ish abv.

It’s been a long time since I liked any beer this much. I will be in active persuit of more of this one.
A total 5 points on untappd for me with no doubts at all.