For this #beersaturday I'm going to review two Stout beers, an Irish Dry and a nitro. As a bonus I'll show you what I made for dinner on one of the days, pulled pork!
Dry Irish Stout
Brewery: Midtown Brewing Co
Origin: Wellington ON Canada
Style: Dry Irish Style Stout
Abv: 4.2%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: A black can with brass colored lettering. No image and a very generic name that is more of an identifier of the type of beer than anything else. It's a boring design, very meh, but I don't dislike it.
Color: The beer poured as black as it gets with a frothy, almost fizzy head of foam on top made up of tiny bubbles. A dark chestnut hue around the edges when the glass is tilted into the light.
Nose: Pretty light in the scent department but I got some roasted notes. It was a little malty as well, with some subtle bread dough in the background.
Taste: the beer was dry as the name suggests, tart and bitter. It was smokey, roasty and had a subtle cocoa flavor. Nicely balanced overall.
Texture: Small medium bubble carbonation with a velvety mouthfeel underneath it all. Medium bodied.
Impression: This was a great beer for me. It was pretty subtle in taste but nice overall.
Nitro Stout
Brewery: Cowbell Brewing Co
Origin: Blyth ON Canada
Style: Nitro Stout
Abv: 5.0%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: Black and Yellow brass color scheme with big bold lettering. Brand logo image. Interesting inverse image design that had me intrigued, a little at least.
Instructions on the back of the can tell you to pour the beer with the can directly upside down, which seems to be the new trend for nitro beers. I've never done a side by side comparison to see if it makes a difference but I poured this beer "hard" as directed.
Color: Solid black in color with a mocha, almost milk chocolate colored head of foam on top. A chestnut brown hue around the edges of the liquid when held in the light.
Nose: Roasted malt aromas, some coffee and a little bit of smoked leather in the background.
Taste: Mildly sweet, almost dry upfront. Tangy. Mildly bitter in the finish. Well balanced overall. Subtle notes of cocoa and coffee. Good flavor. Not too strong or bold but enough to not be boring.
Texture: Small, light feeling bubbles and a watery light bodied mouthfeel.
Impression: Good beer all around. Not the best nitro beer I've had, but a solid brew that I enjoyed.
Now let me show you what I made for dinner while drinking this beer.
Pulled Pork
The grocery store has been selling large cuts of pork lately, on sale and for a really good price. We bought a collar butt (part of the shoulder) and I decided to try making pulled pork with it. It was my first time making pulled pork but the recipe I found was pretty good so I'll share that with you as well. I tweaked it a little based on my ingredients.
2 lbs pork (approx) cut into cubes
1/2 cup BBQ Sauce (tangy sweet sauce)
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Beef Broth
2 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Chili Powder
1 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 tsp Thyme (add in the last 30mins)
Braise the pork in all the above ingredients on low-medium heat for a few hours, around (2-4) until the pork is tender and can be pulled apart easily. The timing may very depending on the meat and heat you use so I would start checking it after 2 hours.
When done, remove the meat from the juice and pull the pork apart with two forks.
Add some of the juice back to the pork after it's shredded. Use judgement here - add so that it's not to dry or too wet. Too wet would be worse in my opinion. Its basically done at this point and ready to be put on a bun. I put pickled onions on it but I prefer coleslaw instead and did this in my next go around a few days later when I made pulled pork again.
I finished my beer prior to eating but a dry Stout beer would go good with the dish. Something a little less sweet since the pork is sweet and the smokiness of the Stout would be a nice compliment I think.
Try something like an IPA with pork it goes well together.
I could see that. I'm not a huge fan of IPAs though. Nonetheless, I don't doubt that you're right 😃
Black beer is quite famous these days, I was a little intrigue, with a taste of cocoa and coffee? Yeah, as what you said mildly sweet 😊
Yes. When the grains used in the Brewing process are roasted dark they take on similar flavors and aromas as other products that are roasted, like coffee and chocolate
Oh, That's why. Thanks for this information 😀
No problem 😃
Have a great day ahead 😍
You too!