The state of the art

"This could be a review of a beer you’ve enjoyed, or perhaps one you haven’t." O the temptation to just slap the Session badge on a pre-existing draft post and deem the job done. Critiquing beers is, after all, what I do here. But where's the challenge in that? For this month's Session, hosted by Matthew "Total" Curtis, I decided to up my game. Well, within reason.

The beer I've chosen for today's deep dive is Shadow Dancing, an extra stout by Dublin brewing institution Third Barrel. Regular readers will know what my usual first point of critique is with their cans: the cringe-inducing low quality AI generated artwork. The brewery used to have clean and stylish branding, but since it was handed over to a robot, it's become a series of blurry messes -- a poor match for their beers which tend to be very good. Streetscapes and signage are a particular weak point of the algorithm, and it's plopped out another one for this. Grim.

On to the beer, so. It pours quite thickly with lots of foam, taking two goes to get into the glass, with a luxurious creamy head as the reward for one's patience. I think of the style as being quite a bitter one, and the human-created part of the label promises us "full on roasty", "burnt toast" and "black coffee", so it was a surprise to find the aroma very sweet, showing toffee or molasses rather than anything sharper. But that's OK: I simply adjust my expectations. No surprises from the texture, however. 7% ABV here means a velvety smoothness; gently sparkled in a way which lets the flavour shine.

And shine it does. We start on that chewy dark sugar but there are hops not too far in the distance, bringing an old-world green bite which balances the caramel nicely. There's a herbal liquorice kick for an alternative bittering effect, and then a growing warmth, the gravity again making a contribution to the beer's overall character. What I like about 6%+ ABV stouts is how they can channel the features of the really big ones without turning unbalanced: too many imperial stouts are performatively sweet or bitter, if you can find one that isn't full of donuts or children's breakfast cereal, and nobody seems to try those silly gimmicks in the foreign extra space. Third Barrel calls this "a stout for stout drinkers" and it is: serious, but very charming too.

The topic gave me a reason to spend some time with this beer, and it's one which fully justifies slow drinking. The see-saw dialogue between the luxuriously sweet base and the stimulating roast and hopping provides entertainment in every sip. Not every beer -- not even every strong stout -- offers that. Exploring beers in a slow and long-winded fashion is pretty much my thing, so this was far from a novel experience. I hope some of today's other participants found such an exercise to be worthwhile. It's much easier when the subject beer is up to it.