Hockley Stout

Brewed by Hockley Valley Brewing & Malting Company
Style: Dry Stout
Orangeville, Canada

Dark brown. Fudgey aroma with light nuts and soft chocolate. Fairly smokey, fudgey body. Smooth and drinkable, though it finishes with a hint of acetaldehyde.

My Bottom Line:
This poor excuse of a Stout is the frail setting for the showdown between plastics and lengthy charred roastiness. The 1-liter swing-top bottle cannot be the only culprit.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-The fizzy carbonation plows through the initially big-bubbled head, which soon disappears.
-This is thin, thin, thin.
-Menthol cigarettes/ashes increase discomfort.
-That roastiness barely possesses any malty sweetness to support it.
-I could not imagine drinking a full pint from this bottle. A nightmarish prospect.

Bottle.

Dark black beer with a thin tan head. The nose is lightly toasty with a kiss of light cocoa. A bi tof light roasted malt over a kiss of sweeter base malt. There is a little touch of caramel in the middle along with the light cocoaish roastiness on the back. It’s a simple stout, but it’s a vast improvement from the last dark ale I had from these guys.

500ml can. Cola brown body, tan head, small ring of carbonation on top. Striking nose full of roast, dry leather, malted milk balls, flaked barley and flaked oatmeal and a touch of semi-sweet amaretto/coffee. Flavor is disappointingly pale, empty, transparent and peaked. Sharp acidity (but not sourness) and bitterness up front, poorly mashed, completely flabby and weak throughout the drink. Stewed sour veggies and butter just ruins this one. Smells fantastic, tastes terrible, what gives?

A deep dark stout with mahoganey hues and a thick moka head. Caramel and chocolate aroma, with light diacetyl notes. In mouth, a good chocolate malt with light peaty notes. Light yet refreshing. Can from LCBO, tasted May 2007.

Sampled from growler in Montreal on Glouglouburp’s roof at the tiggmtl-returns/MartinT leaves for Japan party, June 17 2007. What better way to follow up a couple of Top 50 beers than this fine Ontario product? It pours not quite opaque dark brown-black, with a short-lived medium-brown head....nose is plasticene, cleanser, hard minerals, some bare hints of old toasted grains but not much quality here....and similarly, the body is dry, dull, cardboardy, again with a sort of cleanser character, stale....thin, low carbonation, brackish finish. Mmmm didn’t feel bad about wasting almost all of this growler; I’m fairly sure nothing will grow where we poured it, Dani, so I hope you weren’t going to start a rooftop garden....

Dark malt character is undermined by strong plastic and vinyl phenols in the nose. Opaque black body is topped by a decent fine bubbled tan head that recedes to a lasting cover with some lacing. Vegetal flavour with plastic phenols that overshadow the dark malts. Honey sweetness in the aftertaste. Medium light body is very dry with pleasant and lasting effervescence. Bacterial infection perhaps? Bottle sampled with Altair, beerbuzzmontreal, Cathschlag, Glouglouburp, Goldorak, MartinT, muzzlehatch and Yowie.

Can (473ml). Damned if I can see through it - opaque black, reasonably thick-looking, slightly small fizzy diminishing tan head (almost a 4). Dry aroma, solidly roasty but mild, nutshell and roast coffee bean, a little herbal. The taste is VERY dry and bitter - reminds me a bit of the 7-year-old can of Guinness tupalev shared with us a couple of years back - herbal, dry, coffee-roasty with a long herbal finish. Slick, porter-ish body and mouthfeel, sneaky-astringent, not much aftertaste - just a solid simple dry stout - I’ll buy more.