Lake Towada Stout
FIRST! Hahahahahaha! Lame.
Happy New Year!
New Year’s in Japan is a major Buddhist holiday and is called Oshogatsu. New Year’s here is home and family oriented. Most of the country businesses shut down for at least three days, sometimes more. The arrival of the new year is celebrated during the first two weeks of January, during which “firsts” of the year play an important role. A “first” is called hatsu. Everything from the the first temple visit of the year (hastsumode) to the first business day (goyohajime), is duly noted. So technically, I can call this my hatsuhihyou, the first review of the year. FIRST!
What I have for this review is Lake Towada Stout, locally made in Towada. 5% ABV in a 350ml bottle. The bottle’s label features a pretty winter scene of Lake Towada’s famous Maiden statue. The bottle cap was interesting, a hybrid between a cap and a pull-tab as seen in the picture. I’ve noticed lot more of these caps in the last several months.
My initial reaction to my first whiff of the pour was “burnt band-aids”. After doing a little reading, in the future I will use the term “phenolic” to describe a nose similar to this, but I think “burnt band-aids” catches the imagination, even if it doesn’t sound polished. I was a bit concerned that I got a bad beer and since I was put off by the smell, I didn’t have a drink right away. A few moments later, the phenol gave way to an almost-but-not-quite-burnt toast scent, along with a a bit of coffee.
Getting the beer into the glass, I found the dark, black-brown color of the beer to be handsome and very visually pleasing. The pour resulted in a rich, creamy, coffee colored head rising up, but settling quite quickly. It was very hard to see bubbles, but they were there.
I like bitter and sour tastes but my first taste of the stout was so surprisingly bitter I was taken aback. For the first half of the glass, I wasn’t really sure about the beer and prior to doing reviewing probably would have foisted it on my spouse or poured it out but I wanted to really work through the beer and challenge myself.
I made sure the beer wasn’t too cold and I took my time with the glass and found that the patient approach paid off . The stout did a reverse-origami sort of thing, several flavors unfolding and revealing themselves. By the end of the glass, I found a lot of nice things going on in the brew that I really liked. I was pretty excited and proud of myself for sticking with it!
The carbonation was nicely done; active but not turbulent, I particularly felt the fizz at the sides of my tongue. Mouthfeel was smooth but not overly creamy with a medium-rich body that was substantial without being chewy. Almost too bitter at first, although this settled down as I worked through my glass. Smoky overall with tastes of coffee in the middle, dark toasty malt with perhaps a bit of burnt toast or very dark caramel. Nutty and toasty in the mix as well as a nice touch of hops. Despite the intial band-aid (phenolic) smell of the beer, no weird aftertaste in the very long-lasting swallow.
Near the very end, I enjoyed a piece of gingerbread spice/dark/white chocolate bark with the brew. I love pairing chocolate and beer, but if that’s not for you then this brew might be good with a hearty beef stew.
I got to the end of the glass, and noticed some sediment at the bottom. Peering into the bottle itself, I noticed a ring at the bottom. This leads me, in my very inexpert opinion, to think the brew was bottle-conditioned. I’d welcome corrections and explanations if I’m mistaken.
Overall, a solid dry stout, nicely made and good for a chilly, windy New Year’s Eve.
Kampai!
