Mendocino Black Hawk Stout

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Dry Stout
Hopland, California USA

full bodied, this is a very standard irish stout. roasty with chocolate flavor, it is smooth and creamy.

12 oz bottle at 56F. Poured with loose large tan head with roasted aroma and very dark almost black color. Head dissipated moderately quickly leaving some lacing. Nice roasted malt and hop flavor if a little thin leaving some hop bitterness and alcohol warming. BItterness increases a bit with successive mouthfuls. This beer does not benefit from being served too cold. A nice lighter stout.

Boring, flavorless and too thin. Aroma was typical. Pour was typical. Taste was nothing but bitter and hopped. Not creamy, but watered down in the mouthfeel. With stouts being my favorites, this was enoumously disappointing.

bottle - typical dark brown to black color, moderate head, faded rapidly, almost no lacing. It tastes like an average stout when it first hits the tongue, though too thin, but then the hops hits. It’s very odd and really unpleasant. I thought it was maybe just my bottle because though this was purchased a couple weeks later, it came from the same store I got my last Mendocino beer, which I also didn’t like. But I see Cazort noticed a similar problem. It’s rather abrasive and the hops just tastes off. Mine was off right from the start of the bottle though. I like good hops, but there’s something wrong here. That makes two different Mendocino beers I’ve had with really bad finishes. Frankly 2.2 is being generous.

Bottle - Poured with virtually no head at all. Too fizzy (they call it crisp...) and thin in the mouth and not much in the way of flavor

Aroma sweet, very yeasty. This is unlike any beer I’ve ever tried. Flavour complex: a fair amount of hops are present. Malt flavour is fairly roasty and very yeasty without being too sweet. Texture is perfect for the beer: just the right amount of carbonation, crisp without being too thin or too heavy. I contest the claim that it is "creamy", "smooth", or possesses "subtlety"--this beer is quite raw and abrasive. My biggest complaint is the hops...something about them taste chemically and generic. Tastes good at first but by the end of the bottle it tasted pretty terrible...what is wrong with the hops? I generally like bitter beers but this one tasted off.

The aroma is metallic, coffee like, and heavily toasted malt. The appearance is super dark brown with a small foamy head. The flavor is bitter and has leather and coffee. The palate is pretty much average. This is just alright.

Somewhat thin-bodied stout. Dark roast malts...caramel/chocolate/toffee, butterscotch. Decent hop bitterness. My big drawback is the very odd chemical/tart/sourness that insinuates itself in the finish. Tastes like a brand new carpet pad smells.