Whole Foods Old Plowshare Stout

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

12 oz bottle; cellared about a year. Deep clear burgundy with a foamy oatmeal head. Nice nose of brown sugar, cinnamon, grapes and dark chocolate. Brief crab, mild lemon-lime bite, and coffee are knit together with licorice malts. Simple but soild stout.

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.

Bottle. Heavy malt aromas of toasted, dark chocolate and mild coffee, moderate herbs and resin for the hops, light earth for the yeast and a hint of tar. Head is large, rocky, off-white with fair lacing and is fully lasting. Color is clear dark brown. Flavor starts lightly sweet and acidic, then the long finish is lightly acidic and moderately bitter. Palate is medium, watery, with a lively carbonation and has a fairly dry finish. A nice toasty tasting Dry Stout.

bottle poured into a snifter is dark brown bordering on black in color with minimal carbination and slight lacing. aroma of coffee, chocolate, malt, caramel, and light roast. flavor is light in mouth feel for the style, malted but not bitter, and finishes with a coco chocolate flavor. taste is very simple, three ingredients water, malt, and hops. another good organic, very raw tasting flavor, i like the simplicity of this.

Good dry stout. Aroma was mainly roasted malt and coffee. Flavor was roasted coffee with hints of nuts and hops. Finish is dry and moderately bitter. Mouthfeel was a bit on the thin side.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with a tan head. Aroma of roasted malts, coffee, and some chocolate. Flavor of very smooth roasted malts with a coffee like finish. Pretty good.

(Bottle). Roasty, coffee, milk chocolate, and malt aroma. Dark reddish brown body, tan head. Flavor is roasty, hints of nuts, coffee. Relatively mild finish.

Chocolately, malty aroma. Creamy in a way. Nearly opaque dark brown color with a significant light tan head that certainly sticks to the glass, though it seems unwilling to break into lace. Seems a bit thin bodied. Kind of chocolate malts, with a light undertone of dark roasted malt. The carbonation is very moderate, the feel is near creamy, and there is a decent amount of bitter, especially in the finish. Dry finish. Quite good.