Emmet's Double Barrel Stout
Of all the beer styles in the world, the Stouts variety has to be the one I would tend towards over everything else. Yes, Guinness is consistently the good one and available everywhere, but there are some really good alternatives available. I remember a very long time ago (or so it seems) having a cracking Stout from a micro brewery in Durango, CO; it must have been a good version because I have remembered it all these years later. So given that Emmett’s has stopped brewing the Belgian Dubbel, it is time to give their Stout a try.
The Beer: 4% abv; Rich, deep black in color, opaque enough not to see anything through it; thick “vanilla” coloured head (I would like to describe this as mud-white but do not feel it would be appropriate); Rich roasted aroma; Deep, roasted malt, traces of chocolate and coffee, smooth to taste with interesting elements of bitterness; a roasted. malty after taset.
After several of these I can’t really fault the beer, it is fabulous; however, I can have a good whinge at the establishment’s policy of how they wash their glasses, whatever they use to wash and rinse the glasses with, you can smell it in the beer. It takes something as strong as the stout to “drown” it out, but I was up for something different but I couldn’t; all I could smell was the industrial strength detergent. I would plead with any establishment that sells good beers (or wine, or any food stuffs consumed by the general populous) to at least take care when washing the glasses so you do not get a nose full of chemicals. The beer is fabulous, the dishwashing is industrial, and it lets the otherwise cracking beers down.
Website: Emmett’s Ale House
Location: Downers Grove
