Brought to you by:
BrewTools Homebrewing iPhone App

Latest Reviews

Double Dry Hopped pseudoSue
Toppling Goliath
Modus Vivendi
Wild Beer Co.
Spaceman
Brewfist

Recent Articles

Shameless
Craft brewer sellouts become as tone-deaf and underhanded as their new overlords. Great Taste Eve
Check out the burgeoning Madison beer scene the night before the best fest in country. Good Beer Makes Good Conversation
The effects of drinking beer worth talking about. The Beers of Walmart
The largest retailer in the world now has its own line of beers. Our Take on the Lagunitas-Heineken Deal
Fuck Lagunitas. archives »

Beer Reviews

Starboard Stout

Arcadia Brewing Company
Battle Creek, MI
USA
http://www.arcadiabrewingcompany.com

Style: Stout
ABV: 5.6%

Rings’s Rating:
   (Recommended)


Comments:
Tim Surprise, along with some investors, started Arcadia Brewing Company in 1996 in Battle Creek, Michigan, and quickly established a stellar reputation with his traditional English ales. Using traditional brewing methods and imported two-row malts, most of Arcadia's ales are relatively true to style and they’ve garnered numerous awards over the years. They also have a brewpub attached to their production facility downtown and a good number of their brews are available for distribution throughout the northeastern and eastern Midwest states.

Tonight, I dug into their Starboard Stout, which is an oat malt stout, as opposed to the more common non-malted oatmeal variety. This was a silver medal winner in the 2003 World Beer Championship.

Very dark in color, it opens up very nicely as it warms. The nose is the standard coffee aroma, from the chocolate barley, with a cocoa head that dissipates a little too quickly. The flavors are complex, however, as you roll it around the tongue. It almost has a lactic feel to it, with a little silkiness from the oats, but I also detected hints of grape and plum, in addition to the expected coffee and chocolate notes. There is a definite hop presence, but it’s not too firm. The lingering after-taste is mainly malt and sweetness.

It’s a very nice stout and pretty standard for its style.

Three mugs will do.

Reviewed by Rings on March 23, 2010.

Drinkin’ And Thinkin’

Beer Dorks News

Want to know how healthy the craft beer industry is? As always, look to Portland. Craft pioneer Bridgeport announces sudden closure, adding to a growing list of PDX casualties. Did Anheuser-Busch Chicago offer their shit beer to Cody Parkey before his missed field goal? Because that may explain why he "accidentally" biffed it. Chicago now has the most breweries of any city in the country. Other things Chicago has the most of: murders, mobsters, and Ditkas. Trying to spin it positive, BA releases end of year graphic. Only 5% growth in the craft sector when nearly 1000 new breweries opened? That's a collapse waiting to happen. R.I.P. Tallgrass... another casualty as the regional/national craft beer market continues to get squeezed. Wait... Constellation Brands cut all of the Ballast Point and Funky Buddha sales staff? They merged it with their Corona/Modelo staff?? We're SHOCKED!!! Pizza Beer founder crying about failure of company, blames everyone else. Reminder, the beer tasted like vomit. Try having better ideas or making better products so you're not a failure. It's Bud Light so doesn't really matter, but we expect this beer to be sitting around for awhile. Indiana brewery to open with controversial beer names to "get the conversation going". Translation: taking advantage of serious issues for free publicity. Hundreds of amazing beers in Wisconsin and the Cubs took back the one everyone drinks just because it exists and people have heard of it. How fitting...