Served at cellar temperature from a 355ml can into a Teku. Near black, with a tan head that holds for a minute and then settles into a collar.
The roast / chocolate / oat bill carries the structure and Magnum does the seasoning. At 11.0% and 40 IBU it sits where the style should, and Sawdust City have resisted the urge to push it anywhere else.
Handsome in the glass, unremarkable on the tongue. There is no flaw to point at, just an absence of anything that would make you order a second.
At 11.0% this is a one-glass beer whatever the label suggests, and it warms up faster than it drinks. Twenty minutes in, the Magnum has receded and what is left is sweeter, rounder and considerably less interesting. Drink it over an hour or share it.
Worth putting down. The tannin and the residual sugar both suggest this will be a better beer in two years than it is tonight, and we have set one aside to find out.
This is a perfectly competent beer with nothing much to say for itself, and there is no shame in that. At $12.00 / 473ml it is a reasonable trade. Whether you would choose it over the two better things beside it on the shelf is a different question.
Bought at Sawdust City Taproom (annual at the time of writing). A year in the cellar pulls the vanilla back into line. Try again in 2027.
Not a beer to seek out, but not one to send back either.
