Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)
Thursday night was supposed to be Trick or Treat night. It was October 31st to boot, so the townships that celebrate Trick or Treat on the 31st should have been trick or treating, and the townships that celebrate on the Thursday closest to the 31st – should also have been celebrating Trick or Treating….. but, unfortunately, a huge massive thunderstorm decided to disrupt all of those plans.
But in a terrific show, Al of Al’s of Hampden and Pizza Boy Brewing Co. decided to offer a treat rather than a trick to all the local kids. When most of the local areas either moved trick or treat to Friday night (Nov. 1st) or outright cancelled it, Al stepped up and offered free pizza, free chicken tenders, free fries, and free candy for kids, having basically a large buffet set up for kids in costumes in the open seating patio area of Pizza Boy.
It was a wonderful, full night at Pizza Boy. Tons of kids in costumes roamed about while parents sat and drank and watched either the Thursday Night Football game on a few televisions or one of the kid Halloween movies on the big screen or smaller screens from Disney or Nickelodeon.
Kids came dressed up as clowns, Frankenstein’s monster, the fork from the newest Toy Story movie, Stitch, a Fox, nearly every member of the Avengers (except of course nobody was dressed up as Hawkeye), a lumberjack, or Wednesday Adams. (Just to name some of the various costumes I saw.)
It was a terrific gesture shown by Al and the brewery and restaurant. And the kids (and parents) had a fantastic time. Hard to beat free pizza (for kids), free chicken tenders, free fries, free soda, and free candy… but I think I have a beer that did just that.
Beer: St. Thomas
Brewery: Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Pastry
ABV: 11%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: ST. THOMAS, PATRON SAINT OF COFFEE STOUTS, an 11% pastry stout infused with @stthomasroasters coffee at a rate of 3 pounds per barrel and over 5 pounds of fresh vanilla beans. Decadent and velvety with an intense aroma of freshly brewed coffee. With such a serious coffee profile we had to balance it with an astronomical amount of specialty malts for a rich, luscious body of liquid burnt marshmallows, fresh vanilla, roasted caramel, coffee and MORE COFFEE.
This was an extremely delicious beers. Other than Sunny Side Up, Pizza Boy isn’t really known for their stouts, but when they do them, they absolutely nail them and they are completely and wonderfully fantastic. And this is just example 1 in that category. Its full, its heavy, its boozy, its complex, its very coffee, its very bold, beautiful, robust, tasty, and delicious. Let’s break it down and get into it.
Appearance is as dark black as they come. Black hole sucking out color black; outside of the nice foamy head, it has a very rich, creamy, light brown to white head with spaced and varied sized bubbles. Great carbonation. Great dark stout color, great colored head.
Aroma is like walking into a Starbucks (or what I imagine it does, because I make sure to stay out of those hipster dens). Extreme notes of coffee immediately, even from a distance. There is some milder notes of caramel, vanilla, and some sweet malts. I didn’t pick up any marshmallow despite what the Untappd description for this gives. Perhaps its just covered up by the insane amounts of coffee? Who knows, but I do know this smelled delicious before I even got into it.
Taste is very complex. A lot going on with this stout once you get to tasting it. There is the obvious extreme coffee, but there is so much underneath and underlying that. There is the vanilla that smooths it, there is the sweet malts, caramel flavoring, and it is nice and boozy and heavy. You feel the 11% right away with this one. The coffee gives it a very strong bitter that the vanilla then comes in and smooths and softens before finishing it out. There is a bit of light marshmallow taste, but not too much, and it gets hidden and folded in and swallowed up by the other complexities of this beer. That is certainly not a bad thing, as the complexity of the stout works for it perfectly. The bitterness giving away to sweetness, the booze lighting a fire in your stomach, the heavy mouthfeel, the bold flavors, all works perfectly to provide a very deep, rich, and complex and powerfully flavorful beer that is tremendous and wonderful to sip on. Especially as five thousand screaming and carrying on kids go running around and it starts pouring like crazy and thundering and rumbling and lightening lighting up the sky.
This should certainly be a must try for anyone who loves stouts, high-ABV beers, pastry stouts especially, coffee, or just trying deep, rich, tasty new brews.
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.1 (as of 11.2.19)
I would just like to thank Al, Al’s of Hampden, and Pizza Boy, for doing this for the kids, and for the community. It was a wonderful gesture that meant a lot to the kids – especially the younger ones who missed out on getting to do their normal night of trick or treating. I know the kids enjoyed it, I know my kids did, and it was greatly appreciated by both kids and parents alike. It is great when breweries and people step up like this to help out their local communities, absolutely love it.
Ok, and so far so good, keeping up with my November challenge. Two days, two blogs. So far so good right? Only 28 more days to go! (And no… thats not a pun intended or a threat/worry about Zombies coming….. ….lets see if anyone gets that reference, if you do, leave a comment about it.)
Until tomorrow everyone, keep drinking, enjoy your weekend, and hope you all had a wonderful Boo-zy Halloween!
-B. Kline
