Beer Review: Spearhead Belgian Style Stout

 in Reviews  tagged Audrey Hepburn / Coco Chanel / Hercule Poirot / Spearhead Belgian Style Stout / Spearhead Brewing / Waffle Harmonica by

(Ed Note: Would it shock you greatly to know that it has been over 14 months since I actually reviewed a beer on St. John’s Wort? It’s a beer blog, for God’s sake. I know actually reviewing things is out of fashion and simply posting stuff on pinstagrest is de rigeur, but let’s give it a shot.)

The Background

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The medieval period: When monks had snifters and didn’t get the plague. Use appropriate glassware, junior rangers.

Spearhead came into being in 2011, rustling feathers as one of the first contract breweries in Ontario to maintain a command presence during events like Ontario Craft Beer Week. There had been contract breweries before, but Spearhead were the ones who went out and proved that the model could work. With their shiny orange vans and frequently visible merch, they have remained prominent in the Toronto beer scene and have succeeded in part because of the rightly popular Hawaiian Style Pale Ale and partly due to the fact that they’re a bunch of enthusiastic go-getters. I like all those guys. They’re nice guys. Especially Tomas Schmidt, the brewmaster, who is now so ex-Labatt that he’s frequently seen sampling IPAs.

The Beer

Spearhead’s third and fourth offerings came to the LCBO at approximately the same time and they are a Belgian Style Stout and the Sam Roberts Band Session Ale. I cannot objectively review the Sam Roberts Band ale because it beat my beer at the Session festival this year and I am a big sulky baby.

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A lot of explanation for a short label

The Spearhead Belgian Stout, on the other hand, is a pretty interesting property. It’s more complex than you’d assume its 5.8% alcohol would admit. The aroma is high percentage dark chocolate and high test espresso ringed with vanilla, banana and clove. The flavour leans towards raw sugar sweetened espresso with Belgian yeast characteristics and it remains sticky sweet at the front of the palate while drying out at the swallow, eventually leaving a chalky sensation as though you’ve bitten into baker’s chocolate. There is more bitterness than the 35 IBU suggests, leading me to suspect that some of it is astringent bitterness from the 200 SRM of dark malt.

Let’s look at what’s happening here conceptually.

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It really is quite a dark beer.

It’s a stout. That makes sense. There’s pleasant chocolate and espresso that would be appropriate in a big American Sweet or Dry Stout. But, they’ve decided to make it Belgian. Oh HO! I suspect that at some point in the design process they must have thought, “well, what makes a beer Belgian?” It’s a fine question. How can you encapsulate the complexity of Belgium’s styles in one beer? I think that the answer is that you probably can’t.

Spearhead seems to have borrowed from Trappist beers the use of Trappist yeast and added sugar as a boost in both flavour and in fermentables. They seem to have borrowed Curacao Orange Peel and Coriander from Belgian Witbier. All of these things are as Belgian as Toots Thielemans playing a Waffle Harmonica and make about as much sense.

The Arbitrarily Chosen Score Based on Various Criteria

detectivepoirot2

Poirot is accompanied everywhere by a young heir, a lady’s maid, a butler, a retired major and a dowager just so that he can practice his accusation.

Today we’ll be using the International Suchet-Golightly beer evaluation scale, which naturally rates famous Belgians on a spectrum from Hercule Poirot to Audrey Hepburn.

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Idolized by millions, but still capable of burning the roast.

At one end, we have Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He is, rather than a Belgian-Style Stout, a Stout-Style Belgian. At the other end we have Belgian born Audrey Hepburn; the only lady in the world who can make Linus Larrabee give up plastics.

Coco Chanel said something Audrey Hepburn relevant: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” This is very good advice. Spearhead Belgian Style Stout is too busy. The earrings distract from the pendant and the feather boa is absolutely outré, to say nothing of the spats.

I preferred him in Blackbeard's Ghost

I preferred him in Blackbeard’s Ghost

I rate Spearhead Belgian Style Stout a Peter Ustinov as Poirot. It’s a good performance if a little filigreed and would be helped somewhat by the restraint of David Niven.

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