Left Hand Fade to Black Vol. 4:
Howdy all and a hearty hello to all our new readers and, as always, a grateful and happy smile to my returning readers.  I wonder if we should include today’s beer in our little small grouping of music beers?  The beer, Left Hand’s Fade to Black, is a “renowned winter series” that comes in volumes instead of releases and (in at least my mind) is named after one of the great Metallica songs out there.  This year marks the entry of volume 4 which is a Foreign Stout (well every year is a Foreign Stout) that adds a citrus twist to the stout flavor as opposed to the past volumes which have included flavors of molasses, licorice, smoke, pepper and dark fruit. This version came from a tap with a nice black coloring that has a bone white head and a nose malt and citrus notes.  The beer’s initial taste is like a traditional porter with a smooth malt flavor with a touch of milky chocolate notes but the chocolate moves to a coffee note with a slight hop character on the mid tongue that moves to back end of the sip and the after taste is a mild mix of the hops and malts but nothing worth lingering on.  Not a bad beer but I really expected more for a winter lager from Left Hand especially with their other beers.  In my humble opinion, this is worth trying once and if you like it, drink up, but I’ve had my go at it and that’s enough for me.