Murphy's Irish Stout:
Hello all, let’s talk stouts, that great dark concoction that the English came up way back when (like the 1720 for a porter though stout origins is a bit older, 1677).  Anyway, stouts were the first outside the box beer for myself and probably a lot of you though they also tend to scare a whole bunch of people.  Murphy’s Irish Stout is today’s beer and it’s not the Guinness imitator I thought it was.  The beer pours well with slowly building head that actually thickens with time with the ascending carbonation (it’s similar to Guinness in this regard though not as noticeable).  One thing I did notice that was different about this stout (besides taste) is that the color is more ruby than black, letting light through at the bottom of the tulip glass and giving the beer an odd glow.  The nose is of coffee and roasted malts while the taste is similar with roasted malts and coffee with a hint of chocolate and  some back-end smokiness.  Really the flavor of the beer is a little to much, not having the silky smoothness of Guinness or the overall top to bottom goodness of Buried Hatchet.  Most other reviews I read on the beer make mention that the pasteurization of the beer as a reason for it’s…it’s different taste.  Not a bad beer, just odd and I’ve found to many other good stouts and porters this year to let this one stick in my memory past tonight.