tap at the restaurant in nashville. Too thin for a stout, off taste, akward aftertaste.. but it grew on me.

Tap at brewpub: Deep brown with minimal head or lace. Weak aroma of coffee, chocolate, charred malt and barley, hint of tobacco. The taste starts with a twangy fruit and chocolate malt character with some smoke towards the finish. The finish tasted like dishwater and minerals. The mouth feel is thin and soft with a dry finish. This beer lacks depth on all fronts from the nose to the palate. Bad even for a paint by numbers dry stout... arggh!

Totally black, fine beige head. Dusty, olivine aroma. Dry, sausagy smoked flavor. Watery, chalk body. Olive flavors. Finishes out quickly and smoothly without too much residual roast. A good food pairing -- just not much going on beyond the smoked meat flavor. Medium body. On tap, Flying Saucer, Nashville.

Growler. Pours a dark ruby/black with a bubbly tan head. The aroma is sweet and nutty with hints of toffee, raisins, and molasses. Just a bit of coffee is noticed. More coffee comes out in the flavor along with a fairly sweet, raisiny taste. The finish is just a bit dry with some earthiness and peanut-skin qualities along with suggestions of milk. The mouthfeel is a notch thinner than I’d like in a stout, but it’s okay. The carbonation is more noticed at the tip of my tongue after the initial hit of sweet malts, but isn’t too bad. This is faithful to English interpretations of this style.