What Makes a Great Stout?
Stout is one of my favorite kinds of beer, and I’m glad that so many craft brewers include at least one type of stout in their starting lineups. Sweetwater’s stout is based on the Irish model, which means that it will be a normal gravity (or less) brew with a distinctly dry palate and a flavor of roasted unmalted barley. Think Guinness (or Murphys) and you’ll be in the right ballpark. A Cool Pint of Straight Shooter Stout… Okay, let’s cut to the chase and order up a pint of stout… Appearance: Black as moonless midnight, but a lot less scary. Even the head has a light brown hue to its big rocky foam. This beer is everything you expect any stout other than Guinness to look like. Aroma: Intensely roasty — it’s like going to a gourmet coffee shop and sticking your nose into a bag of freshly ground dark italian (espresso) beans. It’s almost a burnt smell with a bit of an acrid bite. I love the deep, dark roast scent, which is really the hallmark of a good stout. Flavor: Big and bold wi
