Nashoba Valley Summer Stout

We were quite surprised to see a Summer stout. The typical summer beer is light and fizzy. The Summer Stout settled to a black murky body with a light brown medium size, frothy head. It had average lacing and a mostly diminishing head. It was not very strong and powerful, but the malty sent contained hints of toasted malts. Amber enjoyed the malty aroma. The initial moderately bitter taste quickly settled to light bitter with hints of burnt coffee for an average duration. Light to medium in body with soft carbonation and a watery texture. The summer stout was good, but wasn’t as complete as we imagined. Not a bad stout, but not a great stout because it was watery. Reviewed in November, 2006.

Courtesy of Boboski. Thanks. Jason. <P> Aroma ha sa sort of molasses, coffee, raisin syrup aroma with mild sulphur/smoke notes and some sugary dark fruit accents...reminds me a lot of some of the Danish stouts I’ve had recently. The body is a flat black and the head is oofily large...three fingers thick...and bubbly, but with a nice tan/mocha color. Mildly plastic tinged, smokey/sweet fore. Tobacco, cigarette ash and rubber throught the middle. The mouthfeel is tingly with carbonation and thin and the finish is sweetish with mild chocolate notes and more plastic/rubber. Tastes amateurish.

Pours a dark black clear in appearance with no light breaking through. It leaves a thick tan head that breaks up quickly. The nose is chocolate, smokey, espresso, vanilla, and some spicy undertones. The taste starts with a tart roasted espresso bitterness on the palate. It then moves to a suttle earthy hop profile that beings to sweeten. The finish leaves you with a tannic tart smack. This is a good brew, a little less "summer" then I expected too much espresso in the body needed more sweetness to balance to truly make this a summer brew IMO. Hence the lower rating but a solid offering.

on tap-pours a light brown head with black color. Aroma is coffee. Taste is coffee, oatmeal. Medium body, good carbonation.

2005 bottle sampled on 9/13/2005. Big, dark beige-cappucino colored head. Deep black colored body with fair head retention. Moderate filtration with slight, slight sediment on the bottom. Light coffee and some light citric hops in the nose. Aroma is extremely weak. Straining, I get a little anise, vanilla and light chocolate as well. Flavor has a big ashiness up front. Cigars/cigarettes, burnt rubber and a high acidity. Foamy texture with huge bubbles doesnt give a thick or even smooth texture. Oily, astringent, buttery. Probably a slight infection. Dry flavor with only a faint toffeeish malt. Lots of peanut brittle, very nutty. Some lightly fruity hops are mildly pleasant.

How about instead of this they make a dark IPA. Leave out the roast that clashes with the citrus and I don’t even know where they were going with this half-assed body and terrible consistency. There’s a huge difference between a session stout and a watery stout.