North Coast Old No. 38 Stout

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Dry Stout
Fort Bragg, California USA

Aroma creamy, ethereal, dissolving into a very smooth roast. Almost no head, but looks as if a bit of mist hovers over the top of the brew. This one smells and looks better than it tastes...the taste is sour and roasty: the sourness dominates and the roast is unrefined. The sourness has a grainy and coarse quality which makes it tolerable, reminiscent of sourdough bread. Tastes both old, and old fashioned. A metallic tone surfaces. Still, it could be a lot worse and I found it to be thoroughly drinkable. To their credit, this is original. I think this one would be greatly improved if the sourness were diminished or eliminated.

Appearance: Pours a distinctly brown color, with a mediocre tan head that quickly subsided while my head was turned for a few moments to watch a Seinfeld episode. Smell: Black malts and bittersweet chocolate lead with some toffee and floral hop notes lingering in the background. There’s a slight sourness here. Taste: An unmistakable roasted malt taste from beginning to end. A brief suggestion of chocolate, but its mostly just a coffee-like flavor throughout. Again, slightly sour. Mouthfeel/Drinkability: Short, simple, and to the point. Not unlike this review itself. A rather thin body - thankfully the carbonation remains somewhat low. A very "easy" stout. Let me just finish with a joke. What do you get when you cross a baked potato with a --Nevermind.

I think this is an excellent version of a classic stout. It has notes of coffee, cocoa, and herbs which translate nicely into the mouthfeel. It has drinks quite densley and pours perfect dark brown/black.

Bottle. Deep malt aromas consisting of dark bread, nuts, milk chocolate and mild coffee with a moderate dough smell for the yeast. I didn’t notice much hop smell at all. Dark brown in color with an off-white, mostly diminishing head which was between creamy and fizzy and was mostly diminishing. Taste implies nothing offensive but is a touch bland for a stout. It starts off lightly sweet and acidic and finishes moderately bitter and a bit salty. It has a medium body which is watery and has a lively carbonation. Not my first choice in a stout but I’d like to try it on tap charged with nitrogen.

Bottle. 12 fl .oz. Very dark, almost opaque, amber color with fluffy off-white head. Roasted malt and chocolate aroma. Nice full-bodied, creamy palate with a dry finish. Excellent malty, bittersweet flavor.

Very good beer. Bottle pours a deep black/brown color with a creamy tan head that left a residual creamy film on top. Loads of homemade caramel/toffee in the aroma. Some hints of coffee and malt as well. Medium-heavy mouth feel. Some oak makes its way in to the flavor of this, but is pretty subtle. Very malty and finishes with a slightly bitter, dry coffee taste. Very good session stout.

Not to sound like a broken record, but this is ANOTHER great beer from the guys at North Coast. They continue to pump out great beer year after year, and this beer is no different. Aroma is subtle roasty malt, bakers chocolate, caramel with an underlying malt astringency that was a bit detracting. Appearance was jet black, great tan two-finger head. Mouthfeel was medium-thick. Flavor was a bid acrid, light fruit, roasted malts, anise and some burnt sugar. An interesting beer and one I can recommend.

Dark brown and reddish, with a thick frothy head. Surprisingly light mouthfeel, malty aroma, with a hoppy/malty taste.