On tap at Pompton Craft House, boastful Greatest Of All Time jargon set aside, this one’s a tad too staid. Creamy black chocolate bittering, soothing milked coffee serenade and sweet molasses oats base pickup mild chocolate cookie nuance as slight peanut, hazelnut and walnut illusions reach the surface. But it’s less creamy, less mocha enriched and less nutty than bigger oatmeal stout’s by the finish.
Richly sweet milk stout lacquers creamy maple-sugared dark chocolate syruping atop bustling blueberry brandy bluster. Bordering on cloy, its gluey tongue-coating blueberry chocolate cake abundance gains Irish coffee splurge as well as tertiary blackberry and raspberry sugaring.
Musky dry-hopped farmhouse ale retains herbal lemon souring and damp barnyard funk to its salty bottom. Wispy mandarin orange and white grape tartness as well as mild lemongrass-peppercorn conflux settle behind Mandarina-Mosaic-hopped lemon rot essence.
Solid medium-bodied stout offers black chocolate fudging, light-roast coffee richness, mild molasses sap and latent cola-walnut tones to toasted barley-flaked spine. Below the cocoa-dried dark chocolate surface, de-husked malts add dewy peat earthiness to neutralize mild tar-like bittering.
On tap at Amazing Grapes, interesting soft-toned Neopolitan ice cream knockoff spreads creamy brown chocolate and vanilla sweetness above sugared strawberry sass. Beneath the surface, hop-charred black malts gain black currant bittering to contrast tertiary red grape, black cherry, raspberry and blackberry undertones and chocolate truffle wisps. In the bottle, dark-roasted nuttiness underscores chocolate-vanilla creaminess and less obvious strawberry tartness. Worthy dessert beer.
