Tasting Day: Wheat Stout

Recipe and Brewday here.

The first time I had a stout was on a trip to Singapore in 2010. I didn’t know it was a stout; I referred to it as a black beer. And I did not like it at the time. It was a Guinness Stout with the roasty, malty, slight coffee-ish flavors and aromas. I didn’t like it because I was expecting it to be the same as very other lager with a change in the color. Of course, Arthur Guinness had other ideas when he brewed this stout. I only finished the beer because I paid 8 SGD for it and didn’t want to waste it. From those naïve days, I have moved over to craft beers and have come to appreciate stouts.

The reason I told you this story is because, to put it simply, this wheat stout largely reminds me of those very same roasted, malty, coffee-ish flavors and aromas that I hated but now love. The aromas and flavors are not exactly the same, but it reminds me more or less of the ‘black beer’. To most folks, it could sound a bit off since Guinness makes their stouts with barley and this stout has wheat in the grain bill, but each drinker has their own perspectives and conclusions of the beers they drink.

This stout pours with a black color but on closer inspection, the beer is really a very, very dark brown with hints of ruby close to the top of the glass. One thing this beer has is a lot of head. On the first pour, I slowed down and stopped pouring simply because the head formed too quickly. In time, I was able to pour a full glass of beer. The head is tan, thick and persistent. It takes a bit of time to settle into a half finger thick foam and then slowly form a bubbly rim around the glass.

On the nose, as I mentioned earlier, it does have a lot of those roasty, coffee aromas. The aromas are strong and continue to persist irrespective of the amount of beer in the glass. A sip of this beer brings all of those aromas and flavors in liquid form and it is good. This beer is strong but very drinkable.

One of things I set out to do when I brewed this stout was to have a lesser roasted characteristic than the Foreign Extra Stout and I seem to have achieved it. Black Malt wasn’t in the gain bill and it really shows in 2 ways: one, the less roasted characteristics help make this beer a more drinkable one; and two: the color of the beer, although it’s a stout, is actually a very, very dark brown. Maybe a bit of black malt may have helped the color but that’s a recipe for another day.

This stout is medium bodied and enjoyable. I will age a small batch of this stout for a few months till, say, winter when I expect the flavors to mellow down a bit and then I plan on having a parallel tasting with the Eis Stout.