I'm about to open a bottle of
Dark Hops, a hoppy American-style stout from a little Danish outfit called Beer Here.
EDIT: a review of Beer Here
Dark Hops (
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile...5/?ba=Reaper16)
22oz. bomber served into a tulip glass
Dark Hops pours a near pitch-black. I've seen imperial stouts that are less black than this beer. Only when you hold it directly to a lamp can you say "Oh, this IS brown after all." A somewhat aggressive pour yields three fingers of head. The foam is deeply tan, like a mocha drink really. The beer naturally leaves thick lines of lace as it recedes, and this is before I've even taken a first sip. A very impressive looking stout.
I don't know how old this bottle is but the hops certainly smell like they've seen better days. Distantly dank, the hops come across as having soured. Past the hops there is a good deal of cocoa powder, maybe Coco Puffs cereal. It isn't a lush chocolate aroma, and there isn't much roast. It is kind of chalky, actually.
What I said aloud right after the first taste: "I wouldn't have bought this if I'd known I had 5 other bottles of this in my fridge under the label 'Boulevard Bully! Porter.'" This beer tastes remarkably like Boulevard's superb, criminally underrated, roasty & hoppy American Porter. You get some roast and tobacco and ash up front with a subdued citrus fruit component all backed up with a drying, cocoa powder taste. The hops don't take away from the stout flavors. They aren't completely harmonious, but the interplay is fun and not at all striking any discord.
Mouthfeel is somewhere in between medium and heavy in body. The carbonation isn't too active but you can still make out the tiny, soda pop-like bubbles. It is pretty up there in alcohol for a non-Imperial Stout. As such the drinkability suffers just a bit; this doesn't offer the same intensity of flavor per ABV percentage ratio as many beers of a similar ABV% do. It is still above average in the category, I'd say.
This is a very good stout by my estimation. I personally love hoppy dark beers, so take that into account. Your mileage may vary. It is a less-intense version of Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, basically. If you see this beer on the shelf then it is definitely worth a purchase. It is among my favorite American Stouts now.
Appearance = 4.5 out of 5, Aroma = 3, Taste = 4.5, Mouthfeel = 4, Drinkability = 3.5. Score = 4.05 (A-).