REVIEW: GREEN FLASH DOUBLE STOUT

The Dark Side

STATS

Green Flash is steadily becoming my favourite brewery. The Double Stout has recently been brought out to Australia and naturally with winter beginning to take hold in Melbourne I had to get myself some.

The brewery was established in 2002 by husband and wife team Mike and Lisa Hankey. This claims to be a ‘big, bold and complex stout, everything I could hope for from an American West Coast Imperial Stout. If this beer can live up to the tag that the brewery has given it, I will be a happy drinker tonight!

Not that the photo shows it but this stout has a very dark tan head on top of an almost opaque black body. The head is very large for a stout and also has surprisingly good retention, this may be due to what seemed like a large amount of bubbles rising up the side of the glass. It’s one of the more impressive looking stouts you will see, and the logo on the glass really helps make the stout look even darker!

Green Flash’s Double Stout has a very intense nose. There is huge amounts of roasted malts that bombard the nose from the off, before a more mellow coffee aroma takes over. Dark chocolate is easily recogniseable as the beer warms. A touch of smoke adds to the complexity of the nose, but this smell drifted was quite weak and isn’t present the entire time. I smell a slight caramel sweetness towards the back end of the nose, judging by the smell this is going to be fantastic!

As with the smell the roasted malts are really strong flavoured. The malts are quite bitter and there are some nice earthy hops mixed in. There are lots of strong coffee flavours and chocolate flavours in the middle of the palate as well as this slightly off putting licorice taste, which doesn’t quite seem to fit in the make-up of this beer, just seems a little out of place. There is a mild sweetness towards the end of tasting the beer but on the whole it’s one of the more bitter stouts.

I’m a big fan of this stout, it’s delicious! The body isn’t too thick, which I know is a concern of many of our readers so if you are one of those guys this is one for you. It’s full of flavour despite the mild body and the carbonation doesn’t seem to come through, despite looking like there was heaps. The ABV is pretty high and I was starting to feel it by the end of drinking this, however it didn’t stop me having a couple more. If your going to try this, grab as 6-pack as you’ll need more than one!

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