Samuel Smith’s Brewery
Tadcaster, UK
[Imported by Merchant du Vin, Tukwila, WA]
Water from the original brewery well, sunk in 1758, is still used. Fermented in open-topped vessels made of stone (slate) known as Yorkshire Squares. Certified Organic by UK Soil Association and the USDA.
ABV:5.0
ABW: 4.0
COLOR: 35
BITTERNESS: 28
ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1059
AVAILABLE: AL, AK, AZ, AR , CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Who needs dessert when you’ve got Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout? This beer pours as dark and rich as midnight with a toasty tan head that clings to the glass like a shy child to its mother. It smells like a chocolate milkshake pouring out of the bottle. Tastes kind of like one, too, albeit a carbonated chocolate milk shake. But that’s just at first. The next sip brings on some more adult flavors, reminiscent of bittersweet Dutch-processed chocolate powder and chocolate truffles. A slightly thin body, an underlying earthiness and a dry finish keep this chocolate treat from becoming too cloying.
- Lisa Morrison
The aroma of this deep ruby-colored ale is magnificent, thick with sumptuous creamy chocolate, promising a little hedonistic treat. While the taste is by no means unpleasant, it just can’t live up to that amazing nose. There’s chocolate aplenty, countered by a bitterness that seems to come more from hops rather than the expected roasted grain, but it’s a sugary chocolate that I don’t particularly care for. Creamy chocolate on the swallow builds in the finish, then fades to leave a hop bitterness. A good beer to pair with puddings.
- Jeff Evans
Lisa Morrison
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever and wherever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Jeff Evans
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. More of his writing can be found at www.insidebeer.com.