Bought on a Thursday, opened on the Friday, a 473ml can into whatever was clean. Black to the edges, the pour viscous enough to coat the glass on the way in.
East Kent Golding over a pale / flaked barley / roast barley base, finishing at 4.2% with 38 IBU. The restraint in that grain bill is the reason the rest of it works.
The pour is the highlight, and that is not nothing. What follows is competent and a touch anonymous, the sort of beer you finish without forming an opinion about.
The whole point of a beer at 4.2% is the second and third glass, and this survives both. There is no cloying edge, no fatigue in the finish, and the hop character stays legible right through. That is harder to achieve than a big beer, and it gets a fraction of the credit.
Getting flavour into a beer this light is the hardest trick in brewing, and there is nowhere to hide when it fails. This does not fail.
Against the rest of the stout shelf this holds its own comfortably. It is not the beer that will convert anybody to the style, but it is the one you reach for once the converting is done, and at $4.30 / 473ml it is honestly priced.
Bought at Amsterdam Taproom (draft only at the time of writing). Nitro can, hard pour, let it settle fully before you touch it.
Best drunk fresh, in company, with nobody taking notes. We took notes anyway.
