Northwests St. Helens Stout

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

This stout pours a dark black color from a 12oz bottle. Small sized beige foamy head. Aroma is chocolate and coffee, hint of vanilla. A medium bodied stout. Malts are chocolate and coffee, touch of vanilla. Not a lot of roasty malts. A touch thin and a little flat tasting. Very average stout. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours with a black body topped by a thin head with some lacing. It’s sweet and malty with a very slight roastiness and a touch of coffee/chocolate. Somewhat weak. Full bodied and smooth.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Seeing as how I'm ¼-Irish (on my dad's side), you'd think that I would care a bit more about St. Patrick's Day, eh? Well, no, not really, sorry..., especially when it falls on a day mid-week. I'm sorry, but I'm no longer a 20-ish guy who can roll into work hung-over the next work day -- or out-right blow off coming into work altogether...!

Anyway, even still, I still felt the need to pay some sort of homage to the day -- especially when my lovely wife made it a point to cook up a batch of Corned Beef (with her own especially delicious additions to the ol' "simmered beef" routine). And all that pretty-much called out for a Stout, don'cha think? Enter: a Trader Joe's Special, courtesy of Hale's Ales Brewery, called "Northwest's Best St. Helen's Stout".

Poured this into my engraved "Gentle Ben's Brewing Company" pint glass, and didn't find much to fault with this beer at first glance. And after a full pulls off of this, some decent enough lacing.

Aroma? This was supposed to have some sort of aroma?

Found myself enjoying the flavor- and mouthfeel-profiles quite a bit, though. Not all that dry, which is appropriatem since this really wasn't really meant to be a Dry Irish Stout per se. No, this reminded me more of the under-rated Sierra Nevada Stout -- appealing roastiness through and through.

Seemed to fade a bit as this warmed up, especially in the mouthfeel department. Basically, as it warmed, it got thinner and thinner -- almost winey, to be honest. Disappointing finish to an otherwise worthwhile, inexpensive Stout.

Basic and easy on the wallet -- pretty much the standard M.O. for most beers associated with Trader Joe's to be honest. A decent enough offering, as long as you don't dilly-dally too long putting it down, IMO.

Music: Paradise Lost's "Draconian Times".
//TB

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

This is a dark and tasty little sumbitch. It doesn't have any head or creamyness, but it tastes real good. Starts out sweet but finishes clean. This is a pretty good brew.