North Coast Old Plowshare Stout

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Almost as good as Guinness, and being a huge Guinness fan, that is saying a lot. This pours a dark brown with a tan head. Aroma is roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, and a hint of anise. The flavour is similar with the flavours all coming through distinctly.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

This beer poured a black color with a beige head. The aroma is chocolate and coffee. The flavor is chocolate, coffee, and some cocoa powder. A nice espresso taste is present as well. What a nice stout this is!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

A dark, red beer, transparent. The head is fluffy and pretty great looking. There is a lot going on in the nose for a beer with an abv of 5.7%, but it’s only good relative to the quality stronger stouts. The beer tastes pretty good but doesn’t live up to the nose. Not all of the coffee and chocolate notes come through on the tongue. Partly, it’s due to this funny metallic taste that’s coming through for me. The feel and drinkability suffer for this metallic taste, as well. It’s not a bad stout. It’s just not a great one.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Well....its organic which is a good thing. It's a little overpriced, which is a bad thing. Appearance is nice....super dark brown (almost black) with mocha frothy head. Mouthfeel could be better, but I usually find organic products slightly rougher and bland. Flavor is very malty (chocolate, coffee, and caramel), mildly hopped. Again, I'm not the biggest fan of organic coffee and there seems to be a lot of coffee in this so maybe that is where the balance/taste is off. I like a lot of stouts better than this, but enjoy supporting the organic community. Don't think I would buy this again, but it's a decent overall beer.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

A stout in appearance. Dark, but as sterling in that blackness. A moderate frothy tan head. Not much hang time. Settles all to quickly leaving a small ringlet of lacing. Bitter chocolate-Bitter coffee in the nose. Moderate body with a nice smoothness. The taste is about coffee and chocolate. More bitter than any sweetness that might be there. A good Stout. Not a Great Stout. Not a Stout I’d shout, “WOW”

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

The rich smoky aroma has strong tones of roast coffee and molasses and just a whisper of unsweetened chocolate, demanding a taste. It pours a nearly opaque chocolate brown with a thick, light tan head that hangs around for quite a bit. Flavor is smoky with a strong overtone of fine coffee and touches of caramel, hops and molasses. Texture is this beer's weakest point - though it is smooth and fizzy, it seems just a little watery. This beer is a winner nonetheless.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

slightly boring (and not as smooth in the finish) as old 38, but a solid effort anyway. worth trying a couple times, but i'm not sure why this one was necessary with two stouts already in the line.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pour was typical for the style, dark black bod, chocolate type colored head. Lacing was only ok. The aroma was milky chocolate, light dry roast. The flavor followed, lots of milky sweet chocolate, too much lactic for a dry stout, but an ok average stout otherwise. Mouthfeel was thin to milky, a touch of stickiness.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a frothy, not quite two-finger thick, lightly browned, tan colored head. The beer is a deep, concentrated, dark brown color that shows a concentrated red color when held up to the light. The aroma has a rich, expressive, dark malt character to it that is a mix of aromatic notes of sweet dark chocolate, espresso beans, malted milk shakes, browned saltine crackers and a touch of dusty, almost basement like in some way, malt. I really like the aroma of this beer, purely dark malt driven, but it has quite a bit going on with that & strikes a nice balance.

The carbonation and the dark malt combine to contribute a thin, lightly acidic quality to the front of my first draught of this beer. The middle and finish though gain a fullness and a malt sweetness / richness that is quite nice. A quick swirl of my glass gets rid of the excess carbonation (which wasn't more than at a medium level to begin with). The beer is now much smoother all around which accents the chocolate malt flavors and darkly sweet malt notes much more nicely. The finish has just a touch of burnt grain acidity as well as a roasted bitterness to it, both of which are light enough that they only serve to balance the sweeter dark malt notes found up front.

This is a solid Stout, much less organic one. I would definitely be happy to drink more of these. The mixture of rich chocolate notes with the sharper, roasted grain flavors is just about perfectly balanced & this beer is just so quaffable.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Aroma is very dry-like and crisp with some roasted malt overtones as well as some cream coming through as well as some cocoa and sweet coffee. Appearance is a deep, black to rich burgundy in color when held to the light with a full head on top that is light-brown in color and remains leaving creamy and thick lacing on the glass. Mouthfeel is light-bodied and dry with very nice malty complexity as well as some faint bitter balance with a palate that is clean and creamy and very good. Flavor is of cocoa, chocolate, and slight woodiness with an aftertaste that is light and smooth with some faint bitterness and a finish that is tasty and dry. Overall, quality dry stout here in every respect and one of the best I have had in sometime and once again I hand it to North Coast for brewing exceptional ale time and time again; highly recommended and a stout that actually would be pleasing during the Spring or Summer months.