“We hope that this beer finds its way to you sometime this winter, on a cold day when you left for work in the dark and arrived home as the sun was going down. When you need something to wash away the cold. A dessert in a can. Pirate Life Stout. You might end up wishing winter lasted longer…”
Served in a beer tulip. Dense black appearance with a healthy two finger head perched on top. Retention is firm, holding together well and weaving a fine lace as it subsides.
This aroma is packing some heat. It’s dark, roasty, rich and luscious with a real complexity to it. Plenty of coffee, dark chocolate, licorice and molasses but it’s strangely fruity and that would have to be due to the use of Columbus hops. Ash, dried oats and earthy forest floor also come through with intent. Lovely stuff.
The hops play a much bigger role in flavor. Upfront it’s all malt though with bitter chocolate, roasty espresso, cocoa and ash with those piney and slightly citrusy hops washing over the palate midway. Traits of black IPA come forth with this delicious fusion of toasty malt and fruity hop leading in to the dry and bitter but somewhat citrusy finish.
The mouth feel is dry and prickly with an aggressive hop bitterness. The 7.2% ABV is intermittent but ultimately well hidden. Medium body and co2.
We had a preconceived belief that this was going to be an American style stout. What we didn’t expect is the level of bitterness. May have been just a tad too heavy handed in our opinion. She certainly would have gained from a bit more balance but hey, at the end of the day it was a pretty good drop.