Stout Night

Last night we gathered fourteen different stouts and porters, five tasters, and held a stout tasting. Brooks, Natalie, Reid, Nick, and I took turns pouring the stouts for everyone else so the tastings were blind except for the pourer. All were poured into snifters from 12 oz individual bottles except for two 22 oz bombers. We first took a good look at the beer and commented. Then we smelled and commented. Finally we drank the beer, commented, and then each person gave it a taste rating on a scale of 1-100. Here’s how the rankings shook out, from worst to first (our average rating listed first, then the ratebeer overall percentile rank):

14. O’Hara’s Irish Stout (avg score 51.8) (ratebeer 71)

The big head and complex scent exciting beginning gave way to an ultra-bitter, flavorless death we compared to “wet straw” and “trodden poop.”

13. Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout (62.2, 99)

This was an extremely hoppy, wildly bitter, flavorful beer. Tom gave it a good rating but everyone else despised it. The general consensus was that it had “too much of everything” and was lacking a consistent flavor.

12. Bridgeport Black Strap Stout (65.6, 84)

Nick called this “polite and timid” and gave it a decent mark; Tom thought it was the worst of the night and compared it to PBR; all thought it tasted metallic.

11. Sierra Nevada Porter (66.4, 90)

Smelled hoppy and creamy. Barely tasted like a dark at all – was almost an IPA masquerading as a porter.

10. Victory Storm King Stout (68, 100)

No one thought this was better than mediocre – complaints included “watery aftertaste”, “way too sweet”, “off-balance”, and “overpowered by malt.”

9. Rogue Shakespeare Stout (73.8, 98)

This ultra-dry stout was generally agreed to be “almost there.” Everyone rated it in the 70s. There were a lot of intriguing hints of sugar, spice, smoke, and other flavors. It lacked aftertaste which frustrated us.

8. Sierra Nevada Stout (74.8, 88)

A bitter “leftover coffee grinds” aftertaste detracted from this somewhat bland, straightforward stout.

7. Lion Stout (83.4, 97)

There were some mildly differing opinions on this stout imported from Sri Lanka. If there was a general complaint, it was that it was too sweet.

6. Murphy’s Irish Stout (83.6, 77)

This creamy Irish got high ratings from everyone except Reid, who felt it tasted alcoholic and watered down.

5. Oskar Blues Old Chub (88, 92)

A boozey, chocolately odor agreed to be the worst of the bunch gave way to a rich, malty, flavorful, tasty Scotch Ale. We felt the overwhelming flavor deteriorated as we continued to drink it, however.

4. Guinness Draught (88.2, 83)

We knew what this was despite tasting blind. Very drinkable, straightforward, smooth (watery?), with a bitter finish.

3. Beamish Irish Stout (89.7, 75)

This was the milkiest, least watery of the Irish stouts, with a gigantic creamy head and a bitter aftertaste.

2. Left Hand Milk Stout (90, 84)

Everyone agreed this was a “pretty ideal stout” with very consistent flavor throughout. This had all the flavors we look for in a stout – sugar, caramel, coffee, and malt, and pulled it together with a smooth middle taste and a bitter chocolate finish.

1. Ska Steel Toe Milk Stout (95.3, 50)

This was the favorite stout for Reid, Nick, and Tom, the three judges remaining when we made our last sample. This was exactly what we were looking for all night – a smooth, coffee, toffee, consistent flavor ending with a slight bitter high note with no bad aftertaste.

Amazingly, our blowout gold medalist was the worst-rated of the fourteen on ratebeer.com! Our #s 2,3,4 weren’t given very high marks, either. And the three highest-rated stouts on ratebeer were all low on our list.

I imagine many of the connoisseurs on ratebeer have a more developed palate than us and look for different sorts of things. There are also possible extenuating circumstances like getting a skunky beer, and uncontrolled variables like how drunk we were getting and, especially, the table talk during tasting.

Despite these, the results are still astonishing. A few trends:

1. We loved milk stouts
2. We really liked Irish stouts
3. We preferred stouts with one consistent flavor throughout
4. We didn’t care much for the highest-rated connoisseur beers. Flavor changes during tasting probably account for much of the disparity between us and ratebeer critics.
5. We all love nitro-tapped beers
6. Bigger beers are not for the uninitiated

Based on these results it seems logical for Sleeping Giant to try to develop a Milk Stout.

Next week: IPA Night.