Elysian Dragonstooth Stout

Brewed by Elysian Brewing Co.
Style: Foreign Stout
Seattle, Washington USA

Bomber shared with muenster and NachlamSie. Pours amber black with a fading brown head (which is apparently dense enough to momentarily support little droplets of beer... cool visual effect, so bonus appearance points). The aroma is thick molasses, nuts, milk chocolate, and charcoal. The flavor is dark nuts, cocoa, espresso, and a little bit of smoke. There is also an even, woody bitterness throughout. It finishes smoothly with some hops and tannins, and a vinous aftertaste. Good stuff.

Bottle shared with Muenster, Tronraner. We all love weird medievel cartoon characters on our stout labels, don’t we? This brew pours black with a small brown head that fades away rather quickly. The lacing is solid and filmy. The aroma is much like an imperial stout with fresh poured espresso, dark mocha, burned brownies, and suggestions of hickory. The flavors are very dense in this fairly heavy brew: more bittersweet, smoky espresso, mocha, a burning twig flavor. Makes me think of the beer being roasted over a campfire. The beer begins very pleasingly bitter in a wood-fashion and is balanced by bittersweet coffee notes. I kind of though that I would like it to be slightly thicker given its imperial stout attitude, but that’s really nit-picking. This is an excellent brew.

Bomber, shared with NachlamSie and tronraner. Pours dark black with a quickly dissipating brown head, and little beads of dark liquid that slide around on top of the head for just an instant. Weird, but really cool. The aroma is robust chocolate, rich coffee, and a note that I can best describe as rum-like. The flavor is smoky coffee and bitter chocolate at first, but it finishes very velvety smooth, with some hops coming through. On a side note, this is listed as 7.2%, but our bottle said 7.4%.

Bomber.

I’ll start by saying that I had one very good experience with this beer. My rating that first time around is below. Original rating: Pours a deep deep black with a nice fluffy tan head. The beer has a lovely roasted malt aroma with charcoal aspects. The flavor is just beautiful: heavy roasted notes intertwine with juicy berries; sweet molassas warmth comes in and cuts the ample hopping but never grows too sweet, receeding before the almost bitter chocolate-and-charcoal finish with c-hop oils on the very far tail of the finish. Mouthfeel is smooth, delicately carbonated, creamy, luscious. This is one of those beers that is very hard not to drink more quickly. It’s outstanding, a great big foreign stout flavor, amped up but not overdone, all at only 7.2%. Ratings: 8/5/9/4/17=4.3

Revisit: After a series of revisits, this one is never as good as I seem to have thought it to be when I wrote out that first rating. It’s not a matter of palate evolution, as all of these revisits occured within a matter of weeks. Instead I get less of a head on the pour, a stout that’s dry on the lead-in, vegetally sweet in the late middle, strongly hopped throug the finish, plenty of roast chocolate but enough off-flavors to drop it down substantially in the ratings.

On tap at Elysian, Seattle. Black with tan head. Good stout. Plenty of flavour, lots of roasted malt, dry finish. Very black, some blackberry fruit in the malt. Reasonable juicyness before tingly finish dryness comes in. Rather a good dry stout. Juicyness is good. Some charcoal.

Black colour with a brown head. Complex malty aroma with coffee, chocolate and vanilla notes and a light hint of hops. Roasted malty flavor with some coffee bitterness and a light fruity note.

bomber. Aroma: Bitter coffee, heavy roaste malt, chocolate, a bit of piney hop, and a touch of vanilla. Appearance: Dark black in color. Head was medium tan, full, and frothy with good retention. Nice lacing. Flavor: Big roasted malt with a strong coffee overtone. Chocolate and light vanilla, a touch of dark fruit. Getting a bit of piney hops again right before the finish. Finish is full of roasted malt bitterness, but also some hop bitterness. Palate: Medium-full bodied. Medium carbonation. Slight alcohol warming in rear of mouth. Strong roasted malt astringency. Overall: Pretty good. Like the heavy roasted flavors, for the most part. A little too much astringency near the finish, though. Worth a taste.

Bottle from Eric. Dense, black with no head and very little carbonation. Roasted coffee flavors combined with chocolate malts. Smooth and sweet mouthful and finish. Very good.