Samuel Smiths Extra Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Dry Stout
Tadcaster, England

Keg at the "World’s Funniest Pub", The Anchor Tap, Tower Bridge, London..
Nitro keg Guinness style, with just a bit more coffee and a little bit better.
Sampled on the Ratebeer London Meetup & Pub Crawl, December 2004. With Silktork, Chris_o, & Kook.

Dec, 2004Nitro keg, Anchor Tap, Tower Bridge. Guinness clone. Smooth, dry, pleasant and roasty with decent coffee notes. The nitro makes it full and smooth. Good enough, but not exciting. This is beer by numbers. [3.0]
Aug, 2008275ml bottle from Shropshire. Vintage 1989. 3.9% abv Some milky stout aroma mixed with mustiness. Smokey licorice flavour. Very thin mouthfeel compared to the thickness of the flavour. A reasonably firm bitterness - quite strong and up front, lingers slightly. A fairly interesting beer. The hops have suffered slightly - they are assertive and biter, but also a touch too cardboardy. The chocolate malts are doing fine - dry and dark and bitter. It’s a light refreshing mouthfeel - though I always find a light mouthfeel with such strong dark flavours to sit together uncomfortably. This is rather better than I expected, both from Sam Smiths and from this particular beer. Nice. [3.5]

On draught in some pub in London. I don’t really remember. I was glad to see Samuel Smiths on tap. Deep black pour with a thick tan head. Roasted aroma, with some coffee and chocolate notes. Fairly subtle taste. Light bitterness. Roasted coffee, malt. Rather thin palate. Definitely doesn’t rise to the expectations from the Oatmeal Stout!

Draught at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, London. Very faint, roasty aroma, not much in the way of an existant aroma at all, though. Dark brown-black color with a creamy, lasting, foamy nitrogen-induced head. Flavor is roasty and very dry, very much in the classic Dry Stout vein after the fashion of Beamish or Murphy’s. Simply dark, somewhat burnt and roasty, bitter and malty. Palate is smooth and thin, body is light-medium. I had no idea this brewery was capable of brewing such a characterless ale. Or is it just my intense dislike of nitrogen’s effect on what would likely otherwise be at least a beer of average quality?

Draft at Chandos in London. Very dark brown to near black with mahogany around the edges. Medium dense coat of microbubbles form the foamy head. Nose is coffee and light cocoa with mild hops. Taste is more cocoa and is mildly bitter. Weakened coffee notes as well. Mouthfeel is a bit oily with more coffee coming through. Creamy though at certain points. Finish is more coffee bitternessand towards the end some faint milk chocolate.

Very nice, on tap at the Lyceum. Smooth and black, I would say even better than Guiness for the style, and cheaper, at least there.

Draught in Cittie Of York, Holborn. Black opaque colour, medium beige-to-brown head. Aroma and flavour of roasty coffee beans and black chocolate. No weak points.

Nitrokeg. A black beer with a nasty creamy nitro head. There are some toffee hints in the aroma and some roastiness in the taste, but otherwise a bit thin and disappointing.