Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: Stout
Blue Lake, California USA

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!

12 oz. bottle from General66 - Thanks! Opaque black pour with a small brown head. Subtle chocolate, roasted barley, and nutty aroma and flavor. Lightly dry and bitter finish. Medium mouthfeel. Very tasty and easy to drink stout!

Bottle from Beerlando. Pours a black color and has a slight hop aroma. Has a thin mouthfeel for a stout and leads to a smooth roasty taste with a vanilla aftertaste. Has little complexity and is just an ok brew.

Thanks After4ever/Tom for this one! It’s pitch black with a light brown, creamy head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, licorice and some coffee. The mouthfeel is semi-oily. The flavour has notes of roasted malt, licorice, a light bitterness and a light sweetness and hints of chocolate. It’s not aggressivly powerfull, but it has a full body, it’s smooth, harmonic and nice!

I really liked this one. My GF bought it on a whim, and for some reason I think I got this and Steel Reserve mixed up, and didn’t expect to like this much at all. But boy was I wrong! This is really a great find, one that just sits on my liquor store shelf without much attention. Pours black and even, looks great. Smells like dark malt and coffee. Flavor is dark and rich. Lots of roasted malt, crystal sugars, slight notes of coffee, chocolate, and hops. At 6% and at a cheap price, this is really a great session Stout! I will be having this one again.

Pours a nearly opaque garnet with a tall, deep mocha head. Aroma of sweet chocolate and roasted malts. Flavor is bittersweet with a touch of sourness; there are some coffee and chocolate notes along with faint hops. Mouthfeel is on the thin side. Finishes sweet but rather bland. Good stout but nothing to be ecstatic about.

Bottle. Aroma has big, big burnt roast notes, slightly ashy, with medium notes of chocolate and a smidgen of lactose. Pitch pour with a dark brown had. Attack is crisp with medium body, dry and refreshing, with a dry, slightly ashy aftertaste. Robust taste has same strong roasted malt and burnt notes, dark chocolate with a slight mocha/milky quality, medium bitterness, and subtle coffee bean acidity. Quite tasty!