Russian River OVL Stout

Brewed by Russian River Brewing
Style: Dry Stout
Santa Rosa, California USA

Draft. Very dry (nitrogenated) stout, very drinkable. Coffee roast and chocolate aroma and taste. Beautiful in the glass. One of the softest palates on a stout I’ve tasted. Pillowy, gentle, roasted mouthfeel - almost like a latte -- and I dislike coffee drinks immensely. This was different; this was still beer.

This is a good stout overall. It looks great, with a thick, solid dark body and a very thick, rich tan head that lasts and leaves excellent and exceedingly rich lacing. It starts nice and roasty, with a good stout chocolate-coffee element and fairly full flavour, but then it briefly becomes a little weak and watery (not uncommon in dry stouts, but hardly necessary), before leaving a mixed finish. On one hand, the finish is a little sweet and has the nice toasty, smokey element of a good stout, but this unfotrunately becomes just a little too harsh, with a faint burnt skunky taste. This is sitll a very good stout since the skunkiness is not strong enough to ruin it by any means, but it is just strong enough to detract a bit. I get this occasionally, but not often, especially since two blocks away, Third Street Aleworks usually has a better tasting, if less aesthetically pleasing, dry stout on tap.

On Tap at the BP Black with a good sized mocha colored head. Nice roasyed ans coffee aroma and flavors. The body is a bit thin but the nitro softens it and the long lingering bitter campfie flavors are nice.

On tap @ the brewery. The smooth aroma was the highlight. It came cold and tasted like smoke. I waited 10 minutes, tried it again, and it tasted more strongly of smoke. I must have had a bad day, or just had too high of expectations, because I liked very few of the beers they had on tap this day, and I tried them all, but very few of their high rated beers were available. Disappointing.....

nitro tap: nearly black with great retention and lacing. Aroma is rich coffee with roast, chocolate, caramel, etc etc. Medium to light body. Well made, but not that interesting. I don’t like nitro taps.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours a nice grainy black with the traditional slab of wet cement across the top thanks to a nitro pour. Not too much aroma, a little bit of sweet chocolate malt on top of some nutty grain. A little tiny bit of carb makes it through the nitro, which is lovely. Nice chocolate and grain (biscuity, in a nice way) on the mid-palate, no chalk or ash. The nitro doesn’t completely kill the flavor, which makes this one a standout among nitros I’ve tried.

On tap at Russian River. Dark brown with ruby highlights and a creamy tan head. Chocolate and roasty aroma. Creamy palate. Chocolate, coffee, and creamy taste.

Sampled at Russian River in mid-June 2007 (nitro). Dark brown with ruby edges and a light brown head. Very nice, pronounced roasty, chocolately nose. Flavor has notes of roasted malt, mocha/chocolate and light caramel - tasty. The only thing I didn’t particularly enjoy was the body; it was on thin side with very light carbonation.