Campfire Stout - High Water Brewing

lacqueredmouse

Australia

4.33/5  rDev +9.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A S'more stout? Sure, sign me up for that. This was a bomber purchased from K & L Wine Merchants in Redwood City, CA.

Pours a slightly brown-tinged black, with a filmy, but relatively fine head of beige, what dissipates to a ring, and only leaves patches of lace. Body is solid, and forms some tight, fine carbonation. Looks good enough.

The nose, however, is where this starts to get interesting. Huge, sweet biffo in the aroma, giving melted chocolate and puffy vanilla marshmallow characters, above, yep, a sweet, biscuity base of malt and gooeyness. It's like a digestive biscuit dunked in a chocolate fondue. Extremely sweet, but absolutely delivering on its promise. Amazing stuff.

Taste, ooh, is also extremely good—and to be honest, better than I was expecting. While I thought the promise of the sweetness would not really be delivered (and it's not), there is a genuine commitment to the S'mores theme here, with more biscuity characters coming through, mingled with a genuine crispy smokiness. On the back palate, we get a long, drawn out milk chocolate character, which again doesn't really contain the sweetness of real chocolate, but absolutely nails its essence. Feel is a little light, and I'd even forgive a little booze if this wanted to be heavier overall, but it's solid as it is.

Really, really interesting stuff—extremely well executed, even if the concept of a campfire-roasted sandwich of chocolate and marshmallow is not your thing. I believe I'll have to keep my eye on High Water in the future.

Serving type: bottle

06-22-2012 04:40:23 | More by lacqueredmouse

popery

California

3.5/5  rDev -11.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Pours very dark. Pretty much wall-to-wall black. The head is light brown, fairly dark for a stout that doesn't seem terribly roasty.

Well, the beer certainly delivers on its label description. It's chock full of sweet milk chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker flavor. This is definitely a s'more stout. There's a ton of marshmallow aroma, in particular. The graham cracker presence is fairly mild, but it fits. I'm not finding any roast or caramel or hops or anything else that you might expect in a stout.

The taste is also on the sweet side, though not nearly as much as the aroma. It's a light, milk chocolatey beer. There's some lactose tang to the beer, a bit more than I'd like but I'm not a big milk stout fan.

Mouthfeel is smooth and moderately carbonated. Little booze. It's sorta cloying but only in so far as it tastes like a beer s'more. Not really sure if I should dock for that.

It's an interesting and well-made beer, but I can't say that I really like it all that much. I would love to try it from a nitro tap. That might up my score a fair bit. I'm generally not a big milk or sweet stout fan, but nitro seems to help out. That said, if you are a milk stout fan, a bottle will probably be right up your alley.

Serving type: bottle

05-16-2012 05:38:52 | More by popery

TheStove

Illinois

3.65/5  rDev -7.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 4

Picked this one up at Healthy Spirits. Interested to try it after having Shorts' S'mores Stout (or i think it is called Winter Fun Stout)

Poured from a bomber into a pint glass.

Pours inky opaque black with a lingering mocha colored lace that slowly dissipates. Smells like an amazing mix of the mentioned flavors with marshmallow and chocolate being most apparent. Subsequent smells yield more of the graham cracker but with a dominating marshmallow scent.

Drink light at first but then opens up huge flavors during sip. Sweet marshmallow and cracker flavors sit on the front of the sip while bitter and chocolate malts underline and eventually finish the experience. A lingering bitterness punctuated by light sweetness flavors lingers on the tongue and is rather enjoyable. The mouthfeel is average. Though this isn't an imperial stout, it still drinks pretty light and the texture belies what one might expect from something intended to be like a S'more.

Overall this is an interesting beer. It deserves praise for taking a creative risk and doing it well. Overall it contributes well to High Waters' mix of bold traditional styles and more interesting offerings. This is less one of those beers you drink while out and more one that is meant to be consumed fireside as the bottle hints. This would also be a great winter beer.

Serving type: bottle

04-26-2012 03:07:16 | More by TheStove