Sycamore Brewing - Caribbean stout

I picked up this single 12oz can for $5.99 at Total Wine in Arlington, VA, last month after brunch at O'Sullivan's, where a few friends and I watched Scotland lose to Ireland at rugby. We went to Total Wine afterward and perused their huge aisle of singles, and came away with quite a few fun finds.

This is a 7.00% ABV "Caribbean stout" from Sycamore Brewing out of Charlotte, NC. This is my first beer by Sycamore, and as none us us ever had a "Caribbean stout", we all grabbed one.

I did some research on Caribbean stouts, and was interested to find quite a bit of scholarship on the topic. Traditional wisdom suggests that in hot, steamy climates, people drink cool, crisp refreshing beers. This is oddly not the case, with a great number of darker, heavy beers being manufactured across the region (most notably Jamaica.) 

So this one is extra hopped, which is fun for a dark beer and unusual. It makes sense, though - kinda like how IPAs (India Pale Ales) started as ales heavily fortified with hops as preservatives, so it would last the long schooner journey to the Raj from England. 

Striking can. I love it when brewers used colored can blanks, pop tabs, and sealing caps. It's fun and really gives the beer some shelf appeal. 

Pours root beer colored into the glass, and generates a short but stout (ha) head. The aroma is soft with a particular herbal quality that's intriguing. 

There's a major dose of dark chocolate up front, with a few touches of caramel and toasted bread. In the middle, I've getting some medium-roast coffee - no acidity, but not bitter or oily. The finish is where I'm getting some herbs, and a touch of piney hops but not a ton. Aftertaste is light with a bit of sweet cream.

This beer is pretty interesting and has a lot of different flavor layers to it. I very much appreciate that it it's not heavy or overroasted; I'm pretty much done with those types of beers. Along with some of the usual "dark beer" flavors like caramel, the addition of hops is an interesting, and welcome touch. Here, it's not overdone or packed with bitterness but instead delivers that herbal quality which goes well. The texture is soft but not creamy and the hops don't impart any bitter or resinous qualities - it's all herbs.

Overall, I like it and is worth trying. It's a nice counter to dark, roasty beers and a good "spring stout" if such a concept exists.