Stout by Tom

Invented in London, made famous in Dublin is a pretty cool tagline for Stouts. Stout was once used as a prefix to indicate a higher strength of a given style. Famously this was the (London) Stout Porter, but there was also such a thing as a Stout Pale - a stronger beer brewed with pale malt. At some point Stout was mostly dropped as a prefix for beer, and in recent years it has been collecting its own collection of prefixes.

Most know the creamy, nitrogen-pushed Guinness, which is of the very traditional Dry Irish style. The Sweet Stout or Milk Stout (a name banned in England for appealing to underage drinkers) gets its name from the lactose sugar that gives the beer some sweeteness. There's the Foreign Extra stout, brewed stronger and with more hops for export to warmer countries. Guinness has a version of their beer in this style which has done exceptionally well in some African countries - to the point where Nigeria consumes more Guinness than Ireland (not per-capita but still impressive).

Some sub-styles have a pretty good hold on the winter months and it seems that modern brewing has picked up on this. You get more Milk Stouts in January than you do in June. Same goes for the (Russian) Imperial Stout - another heartier Stout also brewed for export - not to a warmer country, but to a colder one.

Somewhat tangential to these two sub-styles and one that I only search for in the winter is the Pastry Stout. A beer that can feature pretty much any ingredient on the dessert spectrum. Vanilla pods, cacao nibs, salted caramel, roasted marshmallow, pie crust, jam, custard, cream, maple syrup, toffee, ice cream, bacon, rainbow sprinkles - nothing seems to be off limits. These are brewed at both high and low ABVs, with varying levels of sweetness (to varying degrees of success), but its usually the case that anything based on a cake that comes in under 10% is too sweet for me.

Today I'm going back to the basics with a relatively young brewery from the North-West. Tom's does some really approachable stuff - including some can conditioned ales worth trying out. But its still kind of winter and I'm mighty thirsty so I thought I'd jump on a stout.

Tom's Tap | The Mighty Stout

^{Dry Stout| Alc 4.8% | Expires 12.2023 (probably canned 12.2020?)}

Colour

A bit past Ruby Brown.

Nose

Chocolate, dates and prunes. A herbal touch from something not unlike parsley.

Mouth

Very fizzy right out of the can, but comparably flat 10 minutes later. Hints of bitter chocolate with waves of malt. Not sweet but I do get flashes of the dark fruits in the nose. Finishes quite dry and very earthy.

6/10

This avoided the mainstream coffee and caramel flavours and aromas nicely, and came up with a mighty tasty profile. The earth in the finish lacked some accompaniment, but the dryness of it all worked really well for me. I didn't get any oat-feels from this, but according to the label I should have. Lots of potential, which I think were ultimately let down by some carbonation issues.

jay