Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout

Pours black, with a brown head. Aroma is chocolate, roasted malt, and coffee. Flavor is chocolate, roasted malt, and smoke. A nice one for sure.

coffee all the way. pours black as night with a brown head. nutty, roasty and a little bit of fig.

Zealous decanting creates only a quickly-receding skin of foam atop the opaque ebony liquid; lacing is nonexistent. I start to inhale deeply of the decadent fudgy aroma, but nearly gag from the background taint of sharp cheddar and stinky feet. Upfront, the flavor is superSWEET and roasty, as if I were drinking unfermented wort; sour milk and maraschino/strawberry tastes ensue. Carbonation: nil. A latent vegetal quality reminiscent of overcooked brussel sprouts proves as nettlesome as no-see-’ums. Ditto the thick, sugary mouthfeel. A coffee and sour-fruity aftertaste is perhaps the beer’s least annoying quality. Maybe a decent sweet stout at the core, but countless niggling defects ruined it for me. Madness indeed.

Bottle: A great almost black pour with a pretty thin light brown head. Scents of Chocolate and burnt coffee. Taste is the same as scent. A great stout. BOM 2.

12oz from a beer club. Pretty tasty session stout, if you ask me. Thick, chewy body. Hopped up like a West Coast stout should be (lots of overtones of SN’s stout, to me) and backed up by a very prominent roasted flavor that makes it pleasantly aggressive. Good stuff.

Pours a typical deep brown color with a thick head. Aroma is all malts. Flavor is very malty, with a bit of nuttiness and an alcohol bite in the end. Would definitely recommend.

Dark pour with a creamy head which does not last long. Wonderful balanced flavor. I can see with this little beauty if you like deserts it would be perfect with most. Taste as if all top notch malts and hops are used. It was a BOM club selection. Seems worth belonging to as they find all these great brews.

Velvet pour of total dark; milky brown foam recedes to glimmering skin. Hearty vinous aroma of raspberry and pit fruits; caramel apples and pure honey. Some nutty light roasted coffee, milk chocolate and graham lend a full, compact framing; not too adventurous or detailed, but really forthright and just pristinely correct for this style. Strikingly thin texture at first in a flavor driven mostly by smoky chocolate, coffee killed with cream and sugar, and red licorice; it consistently gives this impression of extracted vanilla syrup, ravaging ever corner of the mouth with a very cola-like sticky sugariness, which is obviously unfavorable. Also quite consistently, rich, campfire nuances of roasted nuts, raisins, and aromatic tobacco correct the path with laid back ease; sugar and astringency seem distant memories in those moments and it simply demands another deep drink. Palate is on the bare fringe of medium bodied and nearly light; gentle carbonation does well to bolster the texture. Finishes softly with so lightly roasted vanilla sweetness. Wanting more of this, it seems silly to have underestimated it; altogether, a sessionable, warm, kindly example whose character is not hidden by modesty. Thanks Mike!