Reaping and Sowing

Mark and I are going to do a live review of Deschutes/Obsidian Stout, from a great brewery up in Bend, Oregon. This was one of our favorite beers in college, will it hold up now?

Initial pour was flat, not much head. Could have used a more aggressive pour.

Color very dark, can see a bit of color on the edges of the cup. Tan colored head with very weak retention (partially due to the bad pour).

Big mistake! Mark almost drank the ass of a 2 day old miller lite thinking it was the remnants of the Obsidian Stout!

Smell: Not much, a bit of coffee.

Initial taste: Starts off crisp, cold and smooth; roasted, with a couple of layers of complexity! Starts off very roasted, in the middle you can feel the hops come in. More than expected. We had drank this beer a long time ago and had figured that our palate was underdeveloped then. Expected to find much less of a beer inside.

Body: Watery, low carbonation.

This beer claims bottle conditioning, but small layer of yeast.

6.4% ABV leads to high drink-ability. Goes in easy; the roasted character may be a bit challenging. In fact the roastiness is as much or more than some Imperial Stouts.

Aftertaste is very intense, may be too much so. Perhaps the beer would benefit from a cleaner finish? Or have the hop taste persist to the end. It lingers a bit in the mouth like a sip of coffee, something not quite right that stays there.

Final thoughts:

Mark – “I’d like to give this beer a higher score based on nostalgia (it was one of his favorite beers years back), but as a whole I would give it a B-. ” He admits to be a bit more harsh on stouts as it is one of his favorite types of beer.

Me- Solid, drinkable stout with good roasted characteristics. Unfortunately there are beers that do everything better. In the grand scheme of beers it holds its own. If I could kick the viscosity up a touch, and perhaps keep the end a bit smoother, I would rate it higher. Not as good as I imagined, but better than I expected.

Overall: B

Beer snob would rather drink: Newcastle