Bare Knuckle Stout

A stout that tastes watered down and over cabonated guinness, but not bad at all. (A good chaser for sake)

A nice, smooth stout. Not terribly flavorful, but some might like the less-strong taste. A nice change if nothing else

Tap. This one really doesn’t deserve too much effort, even though it is decently tasty in its own right. This is bud trying to rip off Guinness. Period. It’s like a waterier version of Guinness, but pours the same, has the proper dry stout head (for the isles anyway), and looks the same. Flavor was fine, but points off for being such a flat out copy cat. Seriously, I was with a buddy when I got this and he got the real deal, and we had to question for a second which was which. The bubbles even rise EXACTLY the same. We could tell because this was the muzak version. Anyway, drink the original, it is at least rich in nutrients.

The DM & Hotstuff vacation tour July 2005. This draft brew from Hicky’s pub poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized long lasting light brown colored bubbles that left behind an excellent lacing. The body contained unnoted carbonation, was nearly opaque and unnoted in color. Its aroma contained notes of thin mild malts. Its mouth feel is thin with a mild dark malt aftertaste. Its flavor contained thin dark malt notes. Too bad, but for Bud it’s an improvement.

Draught: Total Failure. This was so watery it made me ill considering they call it a stout. It had so little flavour - should have listened to the bartender.

Oh, we are now so lucky in NE Ohio to have this. The advertisement at Ray’s suggested that I order a black-n-tan with this and Bud - HA! I don’t think so. Obviously served on a nitro-tap, it looked very nice and had that smooth and creamy yet almost watery texture. Aroma was not bad; sweet malt, light roast. Some cheap coffee flavors (Sanka?), very little hops, sugary sweetness. Not horrible, maybe one of the better Anheuser beers, but not very exciting either.

Mild aroma of roasted malts is lightly sweet. Very dark brown body is almost black with a decent off white head that lasts well. Mildly roasty flavour is somewhat ashy and lightly bitter. Medium body with moderate carbonation and smooth texture. Sampled at GABF 2005.

Tap at Busch Gardens, Tampa. Poured out a thick black with a thin creamy off white head after it took about a minute to settle. Some faint roasted malt on the nose, but very little outside of that. Flavor was pretty tepid overall for a stout, some bitter coffee, roasted malt, burnt toast and a decent dry hops finish. It was smooth and creamy on the palate which was a plus, but a little too watered down to rate higher. It’s a beer that looks better than it tastes.