Santa Cruz Mountain Organic Devout Stout

Brewed by Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing
Style: Stout
Santa Cruz, California USA

Draft at the brewery. OK, so here’s the deal with every beer I had here: buttery. Adjust the color and basic flavor component to match the beer otherwise, and that pretty much wraps it up. I’m really on a stout kick, but this failed to distinguish itself. Highly bittered interpretation. (#3587, June 2009)

Poured black with large foamy brown head and sticky lacing. Nose is roasted or burnt malts with a lot of chocolate and coffee. Relatively light mouthfeel for a stout. Flavor is more coffee than anything with a sour note, and there is a light bitterness in the finish.

22oz bottle. Black with thin head that took heavy pouring to even establish. Aroma of coffee, chocolate and licorice. Taste is ashy chocolate with a slight sourness that’s out of place in stouts. Doesn’t completely ruin it, but doesn’t do it any favors either.

22oz bottle shared with Samgamgee and company. 500ml bottle. Opaque black color. Solid roasty flavor, nice mouthfeel. Highly drinkable. Some coffee notes. Light sandy crispness.

Dark brown pour with really no head. Great flavor of dark chocolate and some malt, with a tiny bit of aftertaste. For once a cool label paired with a just as good beer.

Poured from 22 oz. Dark brown with small tannish head. Tastes of bittersweet chocolate and malt Left a nice aftertaste.

(22oz bottle, thanks SamGamgee) Small brown head that mostly dissipates atop black body with brown edges. Moderately sweet, roast, bittersweet chocolate, light caramel. Taste is medium sweet, roast, bittersweet chocolate, light smoke. Light-medium body, light stickiness.

Bottle: Dark brown pour with a finger of creamy brown head. Heavy roast in the aroma with plenty of coffee and just a bit of chocolate. Flavor is dry and roasty with a little more coffee and some light bitters. It seems like it could be ash, but there is a ton of heavy roast and a really dry roast/coffee theme here.