Portsmouth Black Cat Stout

Brewed by Portsmouth Brewery
Style: Dry Stout
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

On tap at the brewpub, nitro pour. Jet black with a thick, dense beige head. Beautiful coffee and roasted malt, a bit smoky and solid chocolate. Good!

Pours dark brown with hints of ruby around the edges and big tan head that hangs around as a cap for a while and leaves only traces of lacing. The aroma has a pervasive milky sweetness throughout. on top of that are some mild roasted malts and maybe the faintest hint of hop bitterness. Sweet roasted malts and dark chocolate start out the taste with the same lactose presence as the smell. There was a little smokiness in the finish as well. The mouthfeel is fairly creamy with little carbonation and with a definitively dry finish. Maybe a tad thin overall. This is a very good example of a dry stout and very sessionable.

20080729 Tap at brewpub. Ruby brown color with little tan head. Thin, ashy, astringent, and a bit musty. More like a porter to me than a dry stout though as it was less roasty than expected. Just okay.

Dry hopped cask version, at Vermont Brewfest July 19 2008. A deep dark stout with a thin moka head. A pleasant floral hops aroma with light chocolate notes. In mouth, a plesant chocolate malt with light acidic points, a sustained light floral hops and a rich body.

Aroma of coffee and dark chocolate, dark brown, tiny tan head. Good coffee flavour, choco/malt and nutty as well. Medium bodied, very well balanced, beautifully bitter. Great stuff. Thank You Beershine and Oakes.

Bottle 650 ml
Appearance: Quiet dark , little light going through , contrasting bone white ring on top.
Nose: Good roast of coffee , mid dryness with solid mocha touch , dryer at end.
Flavor/Palate : Mid-full bodied. Strong coffee mocha character, roasted notes with ash followed by alcohol-malt heavy foot. Good, strong stout.14+/20

sampler @ brewery - dark brown and thin; cream colored head to the edges; aromas are mild; some nutty roasty-ness, but pretty bland; flavors follow accordingly; a light textured, watery and boring stout

Oakes bottle. Damn good for its style this one. The smell of chocolate. A bit of smoke, lighter mouthfeel. Quite nice. Chocolate and roasty flavour held up well enough after room temperature that I finished another good sized sample then. Black, nothing special on head.