“When we heard there was a Stout Fest in our own backyard, we grabbed our beer steins and bagpipes and headed over.”
Nick Larson and Jake Devincenzi
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Kinesiology senior Nick Larson and aerospace engineering senior Jake Devincenzi are Mustang News beer columnists.
If you haven’t been to Spike’s Pub — located in the Creamery in downtown San Luis Obispo — we’d highly recommend it. One of the best choices for newcomers to the craft beer world, Spike’s offers an ever-changing assortment of beers from around the globe. On any given night, they have more than 20 beers on tap, and that number doubles if you’re interested in buying a bottle.
Even better than that: Once one keg runs out, it’s on to something new. We’ve helped tap out a keg of Stone Imperial Porter, only to have it replaced the next day by the freshest Enjoy By IPA available (a $15+ bottle of beer at your local liquor store). The thing that truly makes it a great place to learn about beer, though, is how knowledgeable the bartenders and servers are about what’s on tap. Even if your current beer knowledge barely surpasses knowing the difference between Coors Light and Blue Moon, they’ll help you find something to enjoy.
This weekend, Spike’s put on one of the best events we have attended to date: Stout Fest. Stouts, a term for stronger porters coined in the 17th century, are characterized by roasted malt flavors and a deep black color. American-style stouts tend to also present a delightfully intense earthy hop flavor and floral aroma to compliment the roasted grains.
Photo by J.J. Jenkins
From the traditional smoothness of Guinness Irish Dry Stout, to the extremely American-style hop-gasm of Great Divide’s “Yeti,” stouts are quickly becoming a go-to for our laid back nights of beer enjoyment. So when we heard there was a Stout Fest in our own backyard, we grabbed our beer steins and bagpipes and headed over.
The fest was set up as follows: Three different flights of stouts, twelve different beers in each flight, four ounces per pour, totaling up to a whopping 144 fluid ounces of stouty goodness, ranging from 5 to 15 percent alcohol by volume. For health’s sake, we had to recruit a few beer-loving friends to help us with the arduous task.
One of the great things about drinking exclusively one type of beer for an extended amount of time is you start to notice subtleties about each that would otherwise be lost. A personal favorite, North Coast’s “Old Rasputin,” is a beer we would not normally consider especially hoppy. However, after trying six other stouts, the bold hop accent common among American-style stouts stood out so much that our blind taste test notes read, “Wow, look at dem hops! Centennial for days.” Okay, so our tasting notes might not have been the most elegant, but you get the point.
To avoid our previous biases concerning certain breweries or beers, we tasted the stouts blindly. We chose Flight B, and were handed 12 beautiful-looking cups of beer in two cupcake pans. We first noticed one cup in particular, No. 2, in which we immediately recognized the distinctive nitro-head and got excited. Accompanied by our roommates, we set off on our quest to Mordor — in our case, not the land of Sauron, but the dark depths of these stouts.
In the end, there were winners and losers. We’ll recommend our top three averaged high scores so you can try them yourself.
1. Deschutes Brewery. Bend, Ore. “The Abyss”
We may have mentioned this one before, but the fact that it was the highest-scoring beer in a blind test reaffirms our previous recommendation. With an average score of more than 9, it was the consensus favorite. There’s nothing more to say than it’s just an all-around great stout.
2. Kern River Brewing Co. Kernville, Calif. “Class V Stout”
We had never heard of this brewery, but we may have to look a little more into them. It’s more of an American-style stout, with cascade and centennial hops — usually used in IPAs and Pales — added. We thought it was decent to good, but the average of more than 8 was brought up a perfect 10 recorded by our roommate. So if you don’t like it, let us know and we’ll give you his number.
We have a tie with an average score of 8 for third, so we’ll annoy our editors and write more.
3. Deschutes Brewery. Bend, Ore. “Obsidian” (on Nitro)
Again, Deschutes’ quality shines through. Experimental beers with unconventional ingredients can be amazing, but more often than not, they aren’t — that’s proven by the more traditional stouts out of Oregon appearing in our top four. Especially with the nitrogen gas, this beer is smooth, and the more reasonable alcohol content allows its true roasted character to shine through.
3. Stone Brewing Co. Escondido, Calif. “2013 Imperial Russian Stout”
Coming from a SoCal powerhouse, Stone’s 2013 vintage of its Russian Imperial Stout is, again, on the traditional side of things. What stood out was its solid initial taste, without the taint of alcohol. It allows you to enjoy the roasted aspect rather than thinking, “Crap, looks like I’m not driving home.” You can’t go wrong with this beer.
In the end, we were stoked to have the chance to do a tasting like this, especially when it’s blind, preventing our obvious biases. Needless to say, we went back later and tried the rest — but we’ll leave those ratings and tasting for you to try yourself. Keep an eye out for events like this, as it’s a great value. For 12 tastes, we paid $25 total for beers that are mostly over $10 for a 22-ounce bottle. So head down to Spike’s and check out the stouts before they’re gone, and if you see us there, say “hi” and don’t judge.