Torrance Costco
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“Crisp,” yeah sure.
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There are so many good stouts out there from excellent (local) craft breweries- why drinking something which isn’t even decent
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You’re based in the Bay area, right? If you know any in the LA area serving good stouts, let me (or @SpockSpork) know…
@paranoidgarliclover what part of LA are you in? Surly Goat and Fathers Office usually have a pretty good list of stouts on tap. If you’re in the OC, Bottle Logic and Modern Times are very good with stouts.
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I’m so spoiled by excellent draft beer that I find almost all canned and bottled beers taste stale and flat. Guinness in the trick nitrogen can is one of the few exceptions. If you think it’s not decent, we have really different taste.
Stouts often benefit from some aging in the bottle, especially imperial stouts so it hard to believe that you always find stouts to be flat. So what other (local) stouts have you tried in the bottle/can which are so disappointing ? and yes, Guinness is indeed a mediocre stout at best.
West Los Angeles (a bit west of 10/405 intersection).
Just did a search on Surly Goat. Both that and the Father’s Offices are pretty close to us (the OG Father’s Office esp so). Thanks for recs!
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Just make sure to store the bottles upright instead of flat like wine bottles. Storing for a long time flat can cause the caps to rust and add some not wanted adjuncts into the stout.
Most stouts are too sweet for my taste. I like Old Rasputin on draft.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit, eachtrannach!
Grab a pint of Stay Stout at Highland Park Brewery!
Sláinte!
I’ve usually found the opposite to be true, especially if there are adjuncts added.
Stouts usually lose some of their flavor over time when aging in the bottle and completely fall off after multiple years. That doesn’t mean it would taste bad, but it would become a faint mellow version of it’s former self.
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It depends but in general I agree that if the stout has adjuncts those flavors dissipate quickly. The beer can still be fine but the flavor profile will have changed. I just had a Horus Coconut Convergence from 2020 and the adjuncts held up very well. I refrigerated the bottle from day 1 which helps quite a bit. If you cellared the beer it might not have held up as well.
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I don’t remember if I’ve had stout there (probably not since I’m always there before dinner at Momofuku), but Highland Park is an awesome brewpub.
I see aging beers not so different to aging wines - depending on the timeframe it can change the overall flavor profile quite significantly (and it is often personal preferences which is more favored) . Recently I had aged Old Rasputin and Speedway Stout and actually found quite favorable aged (more balanced). Interesting I recently also (accidentally) aged an IPA (Resin from Sixpoint) and liked the aged one more - it still had the piney bite but it was better balanced.
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One of the best in LA. Great food as far as breweries go. Close to LAX-C to do some tipsy food shopping. Only downside is the parking.
In my opinion & experience, beer is generally better when it’s fresh & tastes how the brewers intended it to taste. The volatile compounds that make up a beer’s flavor often deplete over time, while the proteins that give it body will deteriorate. Any aged IPA I’ve had loses its hop aroma even if is still retains the piney-ness you mentioned. The only beers that benefit from aging are lambic type sours, where you have living organisms like lactobacillus eating away at the sugars and creating a more favorable flavor profile (my opinion only of course). Like you said though, it’s all personal preference. What you consider to be more balanced I would probably describe as muted. Cheers.
I must go to Highland Park at off hours when parking is no problem.
