Stir Stick Stout
Style: Dry Irish Stout
ABV: 5.6%
Presentation: 6 packs of 341 ml brown bottles
Brewery: Half Pints Brewing Company
Country: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
KANPAI! w/ Jeff Werstiuk
After honing his chops as the head brewer at Regina’s Bushwakker brewpub for a few years Dave Rudge officially opened his own craft brewery in Winnipeg in August of 2006. The fruit of that labour turned out to be the Half Pints Brewing Company, winner of several brewing awards already and continuing to go strong by producing original interpretations of traditional beer styles. One of the first two flagship beers that helped to develop their reputation is the Stir Stick Stout, which continues to maintain its popularity and convert newcomers to the fold.
A fine specimen of Dry Irish Stout on its own, Stir Stick Stout contains a subtle extra ingredient that’s alluded to in the name, and brings it all to a new level. More than just any old plain java, Half Pints adds a cold infusion of the prized and sought after Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee to the final maturation tank, a bean said to possess notes of chocolate and citrus to it. Although roasted at and obtained from fellow Winnipeg business Black Pearl Coffee, the beans originate in the green mountains surrounding the town of Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia, a town so small that sometimes it doesn’t appear even local African maps. Obscurity aside, this coffee comes with quite a pedigree, as the Ethiopians have been cultivating and brewing coffee longer than anyone else on the planet. According to legend, around 850 A.D. an Abyssinian goat herder, in what is now present day Ethiopia, was said to have discovered what we recognize as the modern coffee plant through curious means. It was by tracking down the cause of the peculiar behaviour of his flock, which would act nearly possessed when they would ingest the red berries of the indigenous Kaffa trees.
With that little aside out of the way let’s see what Stir Stick Stout has to offer. Your favourite glass will do just fine to serve this in, even better if it’s a mug or pint glass. A cool temperature rather than a cold temperature will allow for the intricacies found within to become more apparent, maybe wait 10-15 minutes before pouring it after you pull it out of the fridge. This stout itself is a dense dark brown, it appears nearly black, however if you hold it up to direct light you’ll notice a slight translucency with deep oaky highlights. Crowning it should be a fairly tall spongy beige head that will leave some chunky lacing as it settles and you start to empty the glass. By this point there should be absolutely no surprise in coming across the robust coffee aromas that you’ll be encountering, along with some dry roasted malt and a pleasant blend of espresso and dark chocolate. Moving on to the flavour, if you also can’t taste the coffee profile almost immediately then I think you may be drinking the wrong beer. There will also be a bit of grainy bitterness and dark chocolate, however in the aftertaste things sweeten up with mocha highlights. Transporting this all is a somewhat light mouthfeel, low carbonation, a bit slick at times but starts to feel fuller near the finish.
On the side of the label Half Pints suggests matching their Stir Stick Stout with a barbecued buffalo burger or sweet desserts. I agree, the coffee notes will greatly accentuate grilled meats, especially with a bit of char, or even dishes with some blackened seasoning. With desserts the same attributes will emphasize a more savoury nature, baked goods with prominent cocoa or dark chocolate, or act as a minor contrast to sweeter offerings. Or even the next time you have a hankering for a cuppa joe with a friend, pull out a couple of bottles of this stout instead and see if it livens up the conversation more.
The next steps in the cooler:
From This Brewery:
Burley Wine
Humulus Ludicrous
Phil’s Pils
Little Scrapper IPA
Sweet Nikki Brown
Other Coffee Beers:
Midnight Sun Espresso Stout
Rogue Mocha Porter
Mill Street Coffee Porter
Other Stouts:
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Guinness Extra Stout
Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout
St-Amboise Oatmeal Stout
Lateral Steps:
Lobkowicz Baron
Warsteiner Dunkel
Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter
Fuller’s London Porter
For The Adventurous:
Aventinus
Samichlaus Bier
Trois Pistoles