Russian River OVL Stout

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

(on nitro @ the brewery)black body with a creamy head.very smooth creamy body with hints of roasted malts,chocolate,and coffee.alot like Guinness but much better.

On tap at the brewery; nitrogenated. Pours a dark creamy, blackish brown color with a thin layer of nitrogenated beige head. Aroma is a clean, smooth, subdued amalgam of arabian mocha coffee, toasted almonds, and frothy cream. It smells inviting, but restrained by the shackles of collapsing nitrogen. I’ll just go ahead and skip the description of the mouthfeel, simply because while not disappointing, N2 is the only fitting descriptor for that experience. The light, yet complex, flavor profile is astounding. Dark belgian chocolate, earthy sumatran coffee, and toasted pine nuts flood the tongue with an amazing amount of flavor for the inexpensive price of ABV. Roasty, nutty, malty, yet light and easy drinking; pairs excellent with the smoked salmon foccacia on the menu, especially considering the lightness of the body makes it refreshing as well. The black board lists this as having 46 IBU’s, which I expected to be overwhelming for a beer of this magnitude, but it’s quite the contrary. Supplementary is a much better word - the bitterness of the hops carries a rich minty, earthy flavor on the backend that disguises itself perfectly in between the roasty bitterness of the malts, leaving behind a non-herbal smack of palate cleansing, dry stout goodness. Excellent.

On tap @ Russian River poured a cloudy brownish black with a lasting creamy tan head. Aromas of roastiness, coffee and bitter chocolate. Palate was light bodied and smooth. Flavors of roasted malt, coffee and bitter chocolate with a smooth lingering roasty bitter finish.

Draught at the brewery. beer is nearly opaque, very dark brown with a large, beige, nitro-fueled, lasting, creamy, clingy head.<P>The aroma is malty with moderate notes of roasted grain, milk chocolate, coffee, trace note of molasses; Light yeast note of basement.<P>The flavor is moderately sweet, lightly bitter, trace acidic with a longish, lightly sweet, trace bitter finish. Milky roasty retros.<P>The body is full, the texture is creamy and the carbonation is lively-soft.

Nitro draft at the brewpub 5/7/07. Very deep brown, with a thick tan head. Roasted coffee aroma, with a bit of saltiness. NIce roasted malt and coffee flavor, with some hops. well balanced and tasty.

25April07 on tap @ Russian River. dark black, tan head. very smoky aroma. a lot lighter bodied than I expected. Lots of smoke flavors. dry and heavier hopped than most stouts. Leaves a coffee bitterness on the palate.

on tap at the brewery - in September 2006. Pitchblack color, nice chocolate, slight sour milk taste. Roasty nose and taste. Small sticky pillow on top.

Draft at the brewpub. Poured an opaque black color. Head was off white with a bit of lace. Attractive roasty chocolate aroma and flavor. Medium bodied and dry on the tongue with a smooth nitro mouth feel. Good stout.