I’m opening this up on Ash Wednesday, because I took the whole “fast and abstaining” thing a bit too far for comfort. My only calories were from a glass of orange juice until I broke down and had an apple. But I think a “liquid bread” should count.
This is another seasonal beers sent for my comment by Louis Glunz distributors. It comes from Breckenridge Brewery in Colorado, as a collaboration with Boundary Brewing Cooperative of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dry Irish Stout is described as roasted barley, flaked barley, and irish stout malt, and it’s packaged in a nitrogen charged can as part of Breckenridge’s Nitro series.
The beer pours more of a dark brown than black. At first it looks like there’s no head building, but in a minute, a half-inch tan, Guinness-y head builds up. The nose has a deep roasty smell with just a bit of coffee in the background.
There’s much more roast in the taste, but it’s tempered by a mouthfeel that’s almost flat; keep barely alive by the nitrogen still working its way in the beer. While the overall impression is of a dry stout, there’s a very slight side note of slight sweetness, just a pinch of strawberry and lemon. At 4.8% abv, it’s slightly stronger than a Guinness Draught, but still in the sessionable range. I feel like it goes best with sausage more than corned beef, but should work well with the meat course of any meal.
