Mendocino Black Hawk Stout

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Dry Stout
Hopland, California USA

I picked up a sampler pack and this stout might be the best out of the four in there. It has a nice sweet smooth taste to it.

Almost black, can see traces of red when held up to the light. Nice thick head and lace. Lovely roasty and coffee nose. This is a tasty stout. Nice coffee and nutty tastes with a solid malt backbone. There is a mellow softness in this one which gives it a unique character, maybe from the yeast. A hoppy bitterness to end it. Could use more body.

Bottle. Pours a midnight black with a choocolate brown head. Aroma is toasty with a bit of coffee. Tasting, this beer is a tad bit on the lighter side of stouts. There is a toasted maltiness that you would expect but a bit more hop than usual. This is a stout I could drink all night.

Nice cocoa brown head that while not the biggest, was nice and tight and when a tad more was poured it looked like chocolate syrup going across it, leaving a trail. It is dry and crisp for sure, but lacking in extreme depth. I like crawling in the darkness and enjoyed the show, but to rank above other stouts I guess I want some sort of bumps in the dark or ghosts floating in the ether or whatever it is that fine brewers do to make a stout rise above. As it is, this is darn tasty.

Black color, medium head, fast diminishing. Very light clay and roasted coffee beans nose. Roasted malt, chocolate, and some tobacco in the taste - long lasting aftertaste - medium bodied.

This bottled brew poured a large head of foamy fine to medium sized long lasting brown-white bubbles that left behind a most excellent lacing. The body is oh so pitch black as to allow absolutely light even around the edges and definitely too dark to see any carbonation. The aroma is disappointingly mild with simple malt molasses notes. The mouth feel is smooth malty and has a slight hop bite in its coffee flavored finish. The mouth feel is malty with molasses and coffee notes.

Deep brown/black body topped by a dense, puffy, thick tan head. Chocolate and roasted malt share billing with unusual sherry notes in the aroma. Body is rather thin with dry chocolate and a touch of tangy fruit, finishing on a bitter, metallic note. All in all not a bad stout. Suitable for session consumption.

A nice looking dry, with a dark brown color and medium brown, BIG head. Nose is actually more reminiscient of a coffe based sweet than a dry, and is nice as well. The flavor has a nice roasted tone to it. Some of the same coffee notes as in the nose, but also a definite note of dryness. This is a pretty nice dry stout!