Whole Foods Old Plowshare Stout

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

A dark, red beer, transparent. The head is fluffy and pretty great looking. There is a lot going on in the nose for a beer with an abv of 5.7%, but it’s only good relative to the quality stronger stouts. The beer tastes pretty good but doesn’t live up to the nose. Not all of the coffee and chocolate notes come through on the tongue. Partly, it’s due to this funny metallic taste that’s coming through for me. The feel and drinkability suffer for this metallic taste, as well. It’s not a bad stout. It’s just not a great one.

Dark brown with flat head. Toasty chocolate caramel aroma. Mild chocolate sweetness mild roast mild dark fruit mild MILD! This is a gimmick beer for organic people. Almost a combo of a brown ale and a wimpy stout. I love North Coast, but this blows. Watery.

Pours brown almost black with a thick creamy tan head. Aroma of roast malt, toffee, vanilla and chocolate. Taste is sweet caramel with some bitter burnt malt and hop finish. Full texture, carbonation is high but not bad. Coffee bean finish.

Bottle. Poured dark reddish brown with a tall, creamy beige head. Nose is roasted malt with lighter notes of coffee and anise. Thin body with watery mouth feel. Flavor is medium sweet with hard roasted or burnt malts, weak coffee, anise, and mild hop bitterness. Finishes with more burnt malts. Not a huge fan, I like the idea of organic beer but this could have been done better IMO.

Pours dark brown with no head. A little fizzy arouma of some smoke and chocolate. Palate is a bit thin and watery and finishes with some coffee. A little thin and weak but bad.

12 oz. bottle, $1.89 single at Binny’s. Pours starts with a nice cola note upon pouring. Then a lot of graininess, and some sourness. Appearance is in fact cola colored: deep brown/black with easy to find brown edges and puffy brown foam. I’ve had this bottle a few months, but it’s still pretty fresh tasting. A deep bitter coffee component. I can pick out some hops immediately, just a slightly more than average load of hops for the style. A bit of orange "stock ale" sourness. Grainy texture, but not too much. Seems to have been force carbonation (no yeast sediment in the bottle) and that kind of pushes the palate away. Alcohol is a little on the upper end for what could be a fine session beer.

Bottle at Paul’s tasting. Pours a clear brown to black with a thin white head. Light sweet caramel and roast with light chocolate. On the thin side of medium, but the carbonation helps it out a bit. Chocolate and a touch of thin roast. Finishes roasty with some coffee. Smooth and tasty.

Bottle shared by ZDK. Pours a deep coppery brown clear- not even close to being black- thinning head. Aroma is sugary sweet brown sugar, toast, light dry roast and some nuts- low chocolate. Flavor has some light sweet chocolate- some tootsie roll, dry roast, hints of stale coffee, and light herbal and grassy hops and a watery finish. A bit weak even for a dry stout.