One of South Australia’s best winter treats hits you on the nose and is the Black Snout by Para Hills West brewery, Beard and Brau.
Tanya and Chris have been creating excellent beers since late 2008 with beers like the Golden Paw, Red Tail and today’s featured beer the “Black Snout.”
The Black Snout pours into your glass at 5.5% which is pretty low down on the alcohol volume for a stout.
It has a dark ruby colour approaching black and holds it’s small little head for a reasonable length of time. It has just the right level of carbonation and when you wrench the bottle cap of using your bottle opener or the edge of your desk, if you are that way inclined or work in a profession that allows you a ten o’clock pick me up, you would get assaulted with a sweet malt and chocolate aroma with a slight hint of liquorice.
When tasting it you don’t get the slap to the chops which you would get with an imperial stout but that is to be expected when you buy into the milk stout which gives you a smooth malty backbone and some vanilla notes.
It is a really well balanced milk stout which starts with some good bitterness which quickly drops of with a nice kind of smokey chocolate finished off with a superb touch of vanilla and spice. It is not the most complex taste but it certainly has enough for me to enjoy in quite large quantities.
This milk stout is exactly what people should be looking forward to when hitting up a milk stout. It is always important to keep your eye out for the type of stout you are feeling. If you are looking for the big bold Incredible Hulk of the stout world then this probably isn’t for you but if you are looking to ease yourself into the stout world this is a great introduction to the dark side of the beer world. 7/10
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Cheers
Justin Kentish
The Hit Hop 