Belmont Long Beach Crude

Brewed by Belmont Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Long Beach, California USA

Pours light brown, with a small head. Aroma is rich, toasted chocolate, a bit nutty as well. Attractive. Flavor has smoked wood, chocolate, and just a really mature balance. Leans towards milk chocolate essence. Palate is medium, not particularly thick or dry. A well crafted dark ale, I think one of Belmont’s bolder offerings.

On tap at Tustin Brewing’s 13th anniversary party, this is a dry roasty mild stout that’s very drinkable.

On tap at the Yard House in Long Beach, CA. Poured an opaque black with a little tan head. Aroma is fruity with figs and chocolate. Fruit flavors come through. Plum, fig and some brown sugar. Hops balance, bitterness is even and not too overwhelming. Full bodied but not cloying, even though there is a little sweetness. Roast, chocolate and bitterness linger in the finish.

On tap. Dark brown pour with a short tan head. Good lacing. The aroma was thick roasted malt, light chocolate and some bitter coffee. The flavor was dominated by roasted malt with chocolate softening it up. The mouthfeel was thin for a stout and the finish was fairly clean. Tasted like a microbrew stout. Meh.

Draft: Dark brown, almost black colored pour with little head. Roasted malts, coffee, chocolate aroma. Bitter, chocolatey coffee, sweet finish. Not bad at all.

on draft at brewery, consumed on 11/12/07. Color is dark brown (think cola) with good carbonation and head retention. The aroma is roasty, almost burned. Roasted, grainy malt flavor with slightly creamy mouthfeel. No hop flavor I could detect. Mildly bitter aftertaste. The best of this brewer’s beers. By the way, the beer is described at the brewery as a stout, not a porter.

From a 22 oz. bomber bottle with no freshness date, sampled at cellar temperature in a pint glass. Poured a opaque blackish chocolate brown with a large foamy, bubbly, creamy light tan head, good retention, settled into a thin creamy lacing, minimal amount of laced, ringed sticking. Big roasted malty nose, milk chocolate and charcoal, soft dark fruity esters and an earthy coffee with chicory in the background. Good, light carbonation and a crisp, dry, slick, creamy, airy smooth medium, light feeling, bodied mouthfeel. A smooth tasting Baltic Porter, milk chocolate with a bit of lactic acidity, dark fruitiness, smoky charcoal, a touch of caramelized sugary, towards the end a roasted grain flavor comes out, the alcohol is well masked and only provides a slow warmth in the back of the palate, and dry, malty bitter finish with a lingering light roasted coffee flavor. Quite quaffable, easy drinkability on this one, if you like porters, then this is a must try.