Carlton Sheaf Stout

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

[1740-20081002] 1pt9.4floz bottle. Roasted coffee malt aroma hints at mild acidity somehow. Black body with a medium-lasting creamy brown head. Mild cocoa coffee malt flavour has a mild plastic finish. Full body has a nice after-tang. Nice finish, not bad.
<i>(w/ blankboy, GregClow, jerc)</i>

Pours pitch black with a fully receding tan. Taste of roast malt, coffee, and dark chocolate. Mouthfeel is full bodied with a fully receding head. A bit on the thin and under-carbonated side.

A - dark roast coffee, burnt toffee, espresso, traces of what might be anise, milk 7 V - thin black with really thick head 4 T - coffee, leaves a bitter aftertaste, little else 5.5 P - light bubbles at first, watery at the end 2.5 O - 10.5

Bottle shared with blankboy, jerc & mabel - courtesy of jerc & mabel. Deep almost-black colour with ruby-brown edges. Aroma is malty, with notes of cocoa, and an odd acidic edge. Flavour is nice - malt, cocoa, espresso, a touch of bitterness/acidity - but is also a bit "flat", for lack of a better word. Nice, drinkable, but didnt wow me.

This bottle really stands out - big, burly, to the point, with a label only a 1930’s Englishman could love (simple, unexciting, picture of an agricultural product) and a price tag anybody can admire. The Sheaf Stout is a very black, obsidian beer with a rich, viscous pour, conjuring up a thin wisp of espresso brown head. A quick sampling of the nose reveals heavily roasted coffee beans and the delectably tasty (though regrettably distant) scent of fresh, chilled tiramisu. I’m addicted. The first taste is a little less breathtaking, coming off with a carbonation similar to a semi-aged Coke, though it corrects itself fairly rapidly. The flavor, oddly enough, has a kind of cornishness and flavor familiar to lagers, but once it warms a bit it brings back the expected highlights of coffee and bitterness, downplaying the sugar bit unlike many stouts. It’s not overly bitter either, but occupies a middle ground of drinkability and simplicity. At $2.60 a bottle I can’t complain, and think this would make a fine introductory stout for beginners.

2008 Bottle Pours a watery dk brown with a small tan head, aroma is toasted grain and subtle malt, flavour is nicely smokey without getting bitter, fun beer...

Big, strangely shaped bottle. Lovely, gentle dark roast nose with silken chocolate and earthy burnt notes, light mocha in the bg. A bit too sweet. Dark mahogany pour with a gorgeous fluffy, rocky, light brown head. Taste is heavily burnt, that lovely roast from before but somehow thinner and slicker. Faint fruit in the bg. A little chewy tar but no ash. Watery body but great for quantity (at leisure); this is very English (in the English ‘macro’ way). Enjoyed.

Too much coffee in the aroma for me. Other than that, I really enjoyed this. A great opaque color. Thick and quite roasty. A nice graininess in the finish.