Coming soon: Stout Beer Tasting Panel

After an embarrassingly long hiatus (or is it hibernation?), the Israeli Brews and Views Beer TastingPanel is springing back to action.  Mobilization orders went out to our Esteemed Judges, some veteran and some new, and they all answered "Affirmative."

This time we will be tasting Stout beers from Israeli craft breweries.  Quite a few Israeli breweries have a stout in their repertoire.  The style's popularity was probably spurred by the easy availability of Guinness stout in Israel, exposing the locals to this dark and pungent beer for many years.  But if you ask me, Israeli stouts quickly surpassed Guinness, and we are looking forward to tasting and comparing the best of these on the market today.

We are bypassing "stouts plus," stouts with something extra such as oatmeal, smoked, milk sugar and imperial, which are also on the Israeli market.  In fact, we hope to get to those at a later date.  But for now, we are concentrating on regular stouts, also known as Irish or English stouts.  These are black-as-night beers, where you should expect full, roasty tastes, some astringency and a dry finish.  The hop character should be very low, while the bitterness comes from the roasted barley itself.  The distinctive flavors can be chocolate and/or coffee, of course, but also caramel, dark fruits like plums or prunes, and even licorice.

Our panel of judges, chosen to represent the tastes of people like you and me, will be trying six Israeli stouts and reporting their opinions back to you.     

In order not to miss the results of our tasting panel, I strongly urge you to sign up now as a subscriber.  Just type your e-mail in the little box in the right-hand column where it says, "Sign up for updates" and press "Submit." It's free, and always will be.

See how they rank.  Read how they taste.  Keep it right here -- at Israel Brews and Views.