Sheepscot Valley Stout

Brewed by Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Whitefield, Maine USA

Growler 08’. Black with with brown/tan head that settles at a nicely. Roast malts and chocolate at reasonable levels. Thin and flimsy mouthfeel. Overall I enjoyed it.

Samples at the brewery on a visit in August 2007. Steve was tinkering around with a name for it, Starboard Stout I believe. Pours dark brown with a beige head and moderate lacing. Coffee and chocolate notes. Body is on the thin side a a Session stout should be. Overall, a solid stout from a relatively unknown but talented Maine brewery.

Courtesy TheCheeseMan. Black pour with thin tan head that recedes back to the glass edges. Light chocolate and roast aromas, not too strong. Nice and dry throughout, some bittersweet chocolate notes on the finish. A nice stout.

Courtesy TheCheeseMan. Dark brown, brown edges, small tan head. Roasty bittersweet malt, dark fruits, molasses, and a light tang. Low fill on the growler, the tang could be oxidation setting in. Medium to medium/full body, balanced carbonation. Solid session stout.

Growler courtesy porterhouse. Pours a really deep, almost completely black color. Aroma is mellow, in a nice way. Roasted, cinnamon coffee aroma is dominant, with some back notes of dried dark fruits. Flavor is very well balanced, with the roast coming through, though there does seem to be a touch of acidity that is a touch out of place.

Growler sent to me by porterhouse, many thanks! Served in my Stone IRS snifter: Pours deep brown with reddish highlights topped by an initially large frothy head and good lace. The aroma has notes of charred malt and milk chocolate candy along with a hint of vanilla bean, molasses, espresso and fig newton vapours.

The taste starts with a molasses and fruity twang over layers of sweet malt, lots of chocolate there too. It is supported by dry charred malt and light coffee bitterness. The aftertaste is quite dry, earthy and chalky (why is this not listed as a dry stout?) . A no Kevin has not lost his mind because after awhile I found a hint of sea salt on the lingering aftertaste. The mouth feel is the only major issue I have with this beer, far too thin and sprite to match the flavor profile.

All in all a solid stout with some nice depth, I will enjoy drinking the growler this weekend.

(64 oz. growler) Catch the taste of Maine...Pours very dark coffee brown with a tall, creamy, rocky light mocha head. Aroma of dark and milk chocolate and coffee. Mouthfeel fairly smooth, a little fizzy. Also a touch chalky, esp. in finish. Sloppy, thick rings of lacing. Flavor initially is coffee and chocolate - pretty standard stout taste, but with some hint of earthy funk. The more I drank the more the earthy, organic funk began to emerge and actually took on the flavor of something marine, reminding me of a clam flat. Kind of salty - like there’s an element of clam or oyster in here. Hmmm. So far no one else has mentioned that but to me it was fairly pronounced. A little grassy on the back end. Slight lingering aftertaste of earthy, salty, marine funk.

Growler from Downeast Beverage drunk on 8/18/07
Well they’ve done it again….Typical bountiful head, strong retention and lacing in this unfiltered, deep black stout.
Lovely, rich, dry, almost smokey coffee notes from the black malts line the nose, while dry, very enticing vanilla and cream sit in the middle, rounded out by lightly sweet hints of molasses and malted milk. Snappy, fresh yeast esters are lost beneath the dark malt notes, but it still has that lightly musty/earthy smell that I’ve come to love from this brewery. Clean and without any notes of alcohol.
Very much like a dry stout in flavor, though with some chewy caramel-molasses notes that add more body and give it a touch more sweetness than you’d get from a dry stout. Natural carbonation at work in the growler is quite spritzy as always, but fairly tight. It definitely needs some time to breath after pouring, to really let the carbonation come off and concentrate the flavor. Black malts are so dry (though not overly bitter) that they come off as almost flaky, really giving it an authentic feel. Chocolate-covered espresso bean flavor lingers, with burnt coffee on the edges of the palate. Very drinkable, and like the Special Organic and Double Brown, impressively balanced between sweetness and dryness.