BREW LEFT

Smashing Beer Stereotypes

Andrew Garib, Turn Left | Link | Once upon a time, The Cornell American (among other white supremacist outfits, some of whom were cited in the relevant issue) helped bring bigotry back like so many teenage girls with trucker hats. It’s the new tolerance! Young, Black men, as their logic went, are naturally predisposed to crime. (Think that’s an unfair reading? Part of the beauty of being progressive is the uncanny ability to read between the lines.) Sadly, racial stereotyping is a part of bigotry we’re still grappling with after so long. And to make matters worse, it’s the same story in the beer world.

Stout beers are the most stereotyped brews around. When was the last time you heard a beer lover who says she loves beer, but hates Guinness? All too often, beer lovers complain: too thick, too bitter, too strong. Too bad, I say.

Stouts are some of my favorite beers, and they should be some of yours, too. Good progressives shouldn’t be afraid of what they don’t know. And there’s a quality and variety among stouts that you should appreciate first before judging these dark delicacies. After all, you may like this thick, smooth style of beer. You may go black, and have a difficult decision as to whether or not to go back.

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is a good introduction to the world of jet black beer and widgets-in-cans. (Widgets are the little plastic thingies floating around in the average can of stout that create a thicker head when you pour.) Smooth, dark, and chocolatey, yet crisp and drinkable, this Young’s offering won’t make you feel like you’re sipping used coffee grinds mixed with Iraqi crude oil.

The beer pours wonderfully like most stouts. Restless little light brown bubbles first give the drink a black stout bottom, a chocolate milk middle and a foamy head. As the head settles (upwards), only two bands become visible: a profoundly tempting opaque black filling your beer glass, topped by a frothy, dense and stable head of a creamy color. If you look closely, the brew itself has a tinge of rusty red around the edges where the light barely comes in. It smells more of hops than of chocolate, and doesn’t betray the persistent chocolatey coffee taste of the brew itself. Contrast that with Rogue Ale’s less impressive Chocolate Stout, which smells more chocolaty than chocolate itself, but disappoints on flavour.

England’s oldest brewery, however, does not disappoint with its Double Chocolate Stout. The beer is slightly hoppy, chocolaty, creamy and smooth, from start to finish. Unlike in other stout styles, like the imperial stout, the malt flavor and sweetness of this double chocolate brew are there to caress the other flavors of cacao, mocha and hop, not bat you over the head with macho bluntness. There’s almost no aftertaste. And its 5.2% alcohol by volume is well hidden like with some other popular stouts. In fact, there’s really nothing that distracts from the smooth, creamy, chocolaty taste. It’s milky smoothness resembles that of another stout variety: the oatmeal stout.

It’s perhaps the most drinkable stout I’ve ever had, and it doesn’t sit in your stomach like a meal as some would say about Guinness. It’s so drinkable, that the first time I had one at Chapter House a few weeks ago, I could have easily gone for a few more double chocolate stouts without thinking twice.

And here’s the kicker: If you like Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, you might just love that world champion of beer: Guinness.

But your doubts linger. When you see a stout on the bar counter, you’re still immediately apprehensive. What would your parents say if you brought home a stout? Would you trust a stout in your fridge?

Toss these thoughts into the sea of ignorance. Let all your stout stereotypes flush themselves down the toilet of reason. Let freedom ring.

Go forth, and be among the beer “other,” the much maligned and oppressed stout. Open your mind to the beauty that is in Beamish Irish Stout, Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout, Sierra Nevada Stout, and — gasp! — even the dreaded Guinness.

In the words of Franklin Roosevelt, let our hearts be stout!

Brewery: Young’s Brewery, Wandsworth (London), UK
Beer: Double Chocolate Stout
Type: Chocolate Stout (5.2% ABV)
Price: $7.99 at Finger Lakes Beverage Center for 4 14.9 fl. oz. cans

Next time: The brighter side of British Imperialism. No, really. End.