Big City Jamaica Stout (Banks’s version)

Big City Brewing Company
Brewed at Banks’s (Marstons plc)
Style: Foreign Stout
Kingston, Jamaica

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Pours dark brown with tan head that quickly faded. Smells of sweet coffee. Flavor starts out sweet, rather chocolatey, adds a slightly bitter dark roast. Leaves you with a sweet roasty taste - how I always wish those sweetened coffee drinks would taste, but never do. Fizzier feeling than I expect from a stout, and leaves you with a slightly dry feel. A decent stout that I would drink again.

Cask Handpump at the Penny Black JDW, Northwich 06/04/2011 Some roast aroma. Beige head. Black smooth a little rich and sweet on the palate with a hint of dryness in a bitter oatmeal flavoured finish.

Cask conditioned at a Wetherspoons. Black with tan head. Sweet malty beer really fairly thin on the palate, some burnt bitterness but hard to find. A real shame.

[Cask at the Hope Tap (JDW), Reading] I was looking forward to this, as I’ve always enjoyed Banks’ foreign brewer collaborations at these festivals. Black with a thin, mottled beige head and a prickly fizz that made it feel thinner than it actually was. Heavily burnt at first; fortunately this swiftly clears to reveal smoke and chocolate. A very dry finish, with coffee and a little pluminess coming through. Somehow much better than the sum of its parts, and another decent Spoonsfest beer from Banks.

The Felix Holt, Nuneaton. Good as pitch with a low tan head. Nondescript, vaguely wooden aroma. Thick, spongy mouthfeel like a Jamaican Irish moss drink; mellow, insinuating flavour with scorched oak, squashy black cherry and vanilla. Burnt paper finish with a slight, dry roasted tail. Big but empty.

Cask, Whetherspoons, Chelmsford, 5th April 2011 ok justan opaque tar bomb in appearance, this one, aroma is solid, chocolate, coffee, roasted malt, vanilla beans, moderate citurs hops, taste is a bit of let down due, I suspect to conditioning,. I get chociolate, oil, vanilla, roasted malt, hazlenut chocolate, mouth feel is rich and full but definotely lacks a bite. Fairly flat and a bit too malty and lumpy on the palate but there is definitely signs of a good beer here. Fresh at Southanpton Arms please and I’d love to try again..

Hand pulled at the Solomon Cutler, Birmingham. Looks great - lovely colour which seeps through the thick head. Flavour is initially a rather subtle, but very smooth Cadbury choc taste. Really picks up on the finish, as the flavours intensify with the roast really coming through to join the chocolate backbone. Moreish, toasty, yet remains light and highly drinkable. Really gratifying.

Cask @ Counting House, JDW. Black colour, dense beige head. Aroma is light roasted malts, a bit indescriptive. Flavour is roasted malts, fruits, hints of butter and coffee. Fairly bitter. Poorly.

Pint, JDW Moon on the Square, Basildon, Essex. Dark with a loose off-white head, burnt toast and salty buttery echoes fading to liquorice and old fashioned home-made crunchy toffee. It tastes like someone tried to make an old fashioned mild more bitter rather than just a traditional stout. Finish is a touch short leaving too clean and bitter a finish but that’s my only criticism. A perfectly nice drinkable pint.

Cask Conditioned handpump Crosse Keys London. A black beer with a slight tan coloured head and lacing. A hint of smoky malts in the pleasant aroma. Light roasty taste with a bit of coffee and a bit of lactose. Pretty thin but smooth and totally inoffensive,