Sonoma County Stouts
With a town by the name of Hopland not far away is it surprising that Sonoma County is known best for the IPA brewed here? Whether it’s Lagunitas’ flagship or the envelope pushing single and double IPAs of Russian River and Bear Republic, the discussion of Sonoma County’s hoppy brews has taken place many times. Today, we’re looking at something a little different, we’re examining the stouts of Sonoma County.
Before we start, you may be wondering, “why?” Over a couple pints with a visiting brewer and other beer drinkers, the question of Santa Rosa drinking establishments came up. During the conversation, Third Street AleWorks was brought up and generally dismissed by the group. At this point, I felt the need to defend the local brewery. Without mentioning their recent GABF medal, I made the claim “They make the best stouts in Sonoma County.”
As I’m prone to do, I couldn’t make a claim and not back it up, so I organized a tasting session to put the stouts of Sonoma County to the test. Included in the tasting session would be Third Street’s Blarney Sisters Dry Irish Stout and Stone Fly Oatmeal Stout, Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout and Bear Republic’s Big Bear Black Stout. Not included were draft only beers from around the county simply due to logistics and Demspey’s Ugly Dog Stout simply because I forgot to buy a bottle. The tasting would be done straight, no blind tasting. A blind tasting would have been too difficult given the fact that two beers were served on draft and involving a wait staff in the tasting would have been asking too much. Each taster would simply give their rankings of the beers 1-4 and an average would be taken.
Without a unified style to base our sampling, we tasted these beers on a strictly hedonistic scale. From my tasting notes I loved the smooth and dry, almost a touch sour, quality of the dry stout. I found myself taking large gulps when taking my samples. With the Oatmeal Stout I detected a bit of astringency while others commented on a pronounced hop bite. Black bear was big, smooth and satisfying but lost a little bit in that it didn’t seem as “stout” as it could have been. Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout is big, thick, chocolaty and sweet. Sadly, it’s a little too sweet and as with the Big Bear, not quite stout enough, I would have liked a sharp edge somewhere in the beer.
My final lineup went as follows:
- Third Street Blarney Sisters Dry Irish Stout
- Bear Republic’s Big Bear Black Stout
- Third Street Stone Fly Oatmeal Stout
- Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout
I went around the table and collected everyone else’s votes. Interestingly, every beer received at least 1 first place vote and every beer (except one) received a last place vote. In the end, it was that missing last place vote that made the difference as the groups’ lineup went as such:
- Bear Republic’s Big Bear Black Stout
- Third Street Blarney Sisters Dry Irish Stout
- Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout
- Third Street Stone Fly Oatmeal Stout
While I still believe the Blarney Sisters to be the best stout in Sonoma County, my companions felt differently. The Stonefly stout really disappointed me and I will have to come back and revisit this beer, possibly when it goes back on their cask.
