Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Beer Review: Samuel Adams Cream Stout

Released as part of the Brewmaster Collection, Samuel Adams Cream Stout was a beer that I had looked forward to trying. I am a big fan of their Boston Lager and so how did the Cream Stout fare?

The beer pours a jet black with a thin tan head that dissipates to nothing! Aroma is great, choclate malt dominates with a nice background perfume of hops. Medium bodied, creamy with a subtle level of astringency on the finish. Nice sharp taste with the roasted malt very much to the fore, this is balanced by a nice level of hop bitterness on the end. The taste is not as creamy as some stouts (ironic given the name) like Dungarvan's Black Rock, however the strength of the hop bitterness apparent here would be a nice addition to some of the other stouts on the market. The finish is very different to a dry stout, in this case the finish is rather sweet.

A nice beer, however I found it a little sweet. I could certainly drink a few bottles but a little too sweet and heavy to make this a session beer. Worth checking out.

Good information on the website should you wish to try and emulate this as a homebrew:

Color: Deep black

Original Gravity: 13.9° Plato
Alcohol by Vol/Wt: 4.9%ABV – 3.8%ABW
Calories per 12 oz. serving: 189

Malt Type: Two-row Harrington, Metcalfe, and Copeland pale malts, malted wheat, roasted unmalted barley, Chocolate Malt, and Caramel 60
Hop Variety: East Kent Goldings and English Fuggles
Yeast Strain: Samuel Adams ale yeast

4 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

This didn't float my boat at all. Their Holiday Porter is superb, though, except I don't know if they're still doing it.

Mark (Halite) said...

Looks like they are still brewing the Holiday Porter, it is a seasonal beer and so not sure if we will see it over here. I'll keep an eye out for it.

The Beer Nut said...

The likes of Redmond's have definitely had it in the past.

Mark (Halite) said...

thanks, I'll check there.