Bottoms Up: The State Stout Taste Test

After nearly six weeks of brewing, sanitizing, siphoning, kegging, bottling and – most of all – waiting, The State Stout made its limited taste test debut last week.

I discovered D.I.Y. Brewhouse in December while researching for another Bottoms Up feature on Random Tap. The owners of the casual bar, Kimberly and John Gagliardi, introduced me to the proprietor and professed do-it-yourself brewer JonPaul “JP” Tolan.

Since then I have been working with Tolan on a milk chocolate stout, dubbed “The State Stout.” Admittedly, I am not much of a beer drinker. But I was excited to try my hand at crafting a brew.

I was under the impression that the beer would taste like a well-crafted Guinness. Tolan said it would taste like a chocolate milkshake. Well, it was time to find out.

The Gagliardis hosted the tasting at Random Tap, next to D.I.Y. Brewhouse.

“An excellent first brew,” said Zane Adams, one of the stout samplers. “It’s a lot of fun to talk to the brewer, then taste what they described the experience to be – especially if it goes down this smooth.”

Keith Horn had a similar response.

“Great taste all around. Smelled chocolate, but not on the taste. Great color, but the mouthfeel wasn’t that of a milk stout,” he said.

After finding out that someone had checked the stout into the “Untappd” app – a free social discovery and check-in network for anyone who enjoys beer – there were a number of reviews, with an average rating of 3 out of 5.

After trying it myself, I could taste a little of the chocolate that everyone was talking about. It was pretty smooth, but ultimately, it just tasted like beer to me.

I drank it, and slightly enjoyed it – but mostly because I made it.

And it was cool to talk to beer-drinkers about beer. The fact that it was well received by actual beer drinkers made it taste even better.

There are six bottles of the stout left. Tolan advised me to let them sit for two months to allow them to reach the height of their flavor profile. But ultimately, The State Stout was a resounding success. I’ll drink a pint to that.

Dwaun Sellers, dsellers@thestate.com

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 3:39 PM.