Carlton Sheaf Stout

Brewed by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB)
Style: Foreign Stout
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Black pour with a moderate sized tan head and good lacing. Aroma is chocolate, cocoa and lesser notes of sweet dark malts. Finish brings some bitter roast, but there is a lot of sweetness as well. Medium to light bodied, lacking complexity. Not enjoyable.

Poured quiite black with a big tan head. Nose of roasted malts, coffee, fruit, and somethiing sweet. Very creamy palate. Flavor is mostly malt with a hint of smoke. Decent but not outstanding stout.

Bottle. Thanks to Scott. Wasn’t expecting much but it wasn’t bad. Dark brown body topped by a frothy tan head. Mild coffee aroma with some dark chocolate, raisins, charcoal. Medium body with some oiliness in the mouth. The flavor was slightly sweet, some alcohol, some smokiness and an odd aftertaste.

bottle. Pours a rich black with small red hues and a fine, frothy tan head. The aroma is okay with some tantalizing notes of licorice, juicy caramel, and chocolate, but a bit of wet cardboard, perhaps. The flavor is weird as well. Among the expected coffee/chocolate notes comes a brighter note of metal. This has the good makings for a foreign stout, but really doesn’t come together as it should, let alone the fact that it’s too thin for the style. This is of very marginal quality. It comes in a pretty darn large bottle, so it’s okay if one’s intention is just to have a steady, mindless inebriating beverage.

Attractive rich-looking pour...black with rich brown head. The nose was weirdly acrid and medicinal...with a pronounced licorice tone that I was put off by a bit. The flavor was also somewhat medicinal...licorice leading the way. It also, strangely enough, lacked the caramel roasted maltiness I expect in the style. Very light in body and finishes on an acrid, medicinal, tingle in the back of the tongue. Just OK.

Marvelous pour for an interesting brew, pouring a solid black body with a rocky brown head that "laced" in thick rings. Odd aroma in that there was no malt, and even the roasted barley didn’t appear until it warmed somewhat. Initially what you get for the nose is licorice and some bittersweet chocolate. The chocolate never appears in the flavor, which is fairly medicinal - licorice, a trace of alcohol, and an earthy rootiness. A taste of charcoal enters the mix as it warms. A strange bitter/sour twist greets you in the finish along with the licorice. Interesting indeed.

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I’ve had at least one of these a week for the last 20 years - over 1000 total! (Does anyone remember when it was called Tooth Sheaf?) The ONLY beer I carry to the top of mountains when I go hiking. Coffee, chocolate, toast, and just a pinch of salt to set it apart. Like liquid bread, it sticks to your ribs. If you find yourself marooned on a South Pacific island, this is the beer you’ll want a case of to wash up on the shore!

In the big bottle. This one was in just about every bottle shop I visited in NSW. Pours black with a light brown head. Aroma is a strong and almost acrid roasted malt. I can discern chocolate as well. Thicker palate than all the pale lagers, but thin for stouts. Good flavors of roasted malts and an effective hop balance. Good stout. Glad I tried it so close to the source.