Whole Foods Old Plowshare Stout

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Dry Stout
Fort Bragg, California USA

Decent looking beer. Very dark, with a SLIGHT off-white head. For a dry stout this actually looks pretty good. Nice thin head sitting on top. The head eventually fades away, but still it looks great. Slight viscous pour .Very nice roast aroma. Not really getting much out of the aroma except the roast, but again, the roast aroma is fantastic. SLIGHT chocolate aroma comes through as it warms, but never fully develops. Bit on the carbonated side. Not that very silky smooth porter/stout palate I love. Gets in the way of appreciating that fairly good roast flavor. That roast flavor stays on your tastebuds for quite some time. Dry finish, as others have noted. Pretty good beer, but damn that carbonation is annoying.

Bottle. The beer pours to a really dark garnet body with a thin tan head that mostly dissipates rather quickly. The aroma is chocolate with some coffee and sweetened condensed milk. The flavor is dry charcoal with chocolate and light coffee and hints of licorice. This is your typical dry stout. A dry roasted palate with a decent medium mouthfeel. Lightly tart

smells great, in a blind i would think this was a milk stout, but a lot of coffee as well. looks pretty weak though, a dark brown, looked like cola, not what i like in a stout, it should be opaque, imo, a lite lacing on top, again, well below my expectations. alot of coffee in the taste, slightly bitter and hoppy, but the biggest knock i have on this beer is the body. way too thin, watery and no mouthfeel to speak of. i am not sure what they were trying to do here, there are plenty of malts in the flavor, i am just not sure what the plan for the texture and body was.

The rich smoky aroma has strong tones of roast coffee and molasses and just a whisper of unsweetened chocolate, demanding a taste. It pours a nearly opaque chocolate brown with a thick, light tan head that hangs around for quite a bit. Flavor is smoky with a strong overtone of fine coffee and touches of caramel, hops and molasses. Texture is this beer’s weakest point - though it is smooth and fizzy, it seems just a little watery. This beer is a winner nonetheless.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a thin mocha head of good duration, with some lacing, over a clear dark brown (SRM 30) body.........nose has coffee, chocolate, toffee, bread, yeast....taste initially is mild roasted malts, then coffee, chocolate, then mild bitter roast accompanied by hop bitterness.......mouth feel is slightly light, but creamy, carbonaion medium. A nice stout, almost oatmeal like in quality

Bottle Pours a dark brown with a lasting tan head. The head is creamy and laces nicely. Has a good aroma of chocolate, coffee, roast, and some fruits. Has a good carbonation. The blend is good. Has a good flavor. Not super stouty more porterlike. But still decent. Has a watery texture. A medium body. The finish is okay with a decent aftertaste. Not a bad beer.

THOUGHTS: Lots of flavor. Organic beer is definitely better than gluten-free beer. It could use a little bitterness. Not as good as Old 38, but nice and much better than Guinness. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, dark brown that was red in the light with almost no head. What little there was was off-white and that mostly diminished. The aroma was moderate dark chocolate, mild coffee, cocoa powder, brownies, chocolate milk and lighter roasted malts. The initial flavor was sweet and a little acidic; while the finish was acidic and somewhat bitter with and average duration. There was coffee, chocolate milk, cocoa powder, sour coffee, roasted malt and a little fruit. The medium body was a little syrupy, but more dry with very fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent and very dry, almost chalky finish.

Dark brown with a nice light cocoa note. This goes into a mid weighted body that shows a little more malt within the finish.