Tasting Notes: Sticklegs Brewery: Elmstead Stout

Sticklegs Brewery: Elmstead Stout (England: Stout: 4.8% ABV)

Visual: Dark brown to black. Loose dusting of off white bubbles for a head.

Nose: Slightly cloying. Charcoal. Pencil lead. Coffee beans. Wet mud.

Body: Cloying cream and bitter chocolate. Sultanas. An earthy nature. Slight ash. Some milk chocolate counterbalances. Oddly sweet liquorice.

Finish: Very bitter unsweetened chocolate. Dry. Earthy again. Cigarette smoke and ash.

Conclusion: Yep, as I have mused in previous tasting sessions, the sticklegs brewery definitely tends towards a house style of “dry”. Thankfully stouts take well to that,

It’s the mix of the expected and the unusual here. The earthy hop style that sticklegs like so much shows up here again mid body, and so does the aforementioned dryness.   It also has an unexpected sultana touch, but done subtly so it doesn’t distract from the main stout elements.

There are a bunch of more, unusual, notes. Wet mud aroma and cigarette ash. Not what I would call my favourite notes, but for all their oddity they do fit well into the earthy and highly attenuated style. Odd, but not bad in this particular implementation, for all you would expect otherwise.

While it does play a bit with the expected bitter chocolate and charring expected of a stout, the influence of the house style makes it a different experience from the wealth of stouts I have been trying recently.

I wouldn’t put it as enjoyable as say Nemesis, but it is significantly better than Tendering. I consider it a solid stout with a hop characteristic leaning towards the traditional earthy British style. The earthy style will be over emphasised for some, it’s distinctly not a smooth stout, being more turned earth and grit. It’s got a solid bedrock as a beer, and if nothing else makes for a nice change from the other stouts I’ve tried recently with its more out there elements.

A good standby.

Background: A kind gift from Paul (many thanks). I turned to its charms after finally finishing the twelve stouts of Christmas from Bristol Beer Factory and was looking forward to something different. So what is it? Another stout! Ah sod it, different is overrated.