Craft Beer Review #3 - SingleCut Beersmiths: Eric More Cowbell! Milk Stout
The Brewery
SingleCut Beersmiths is a brewery from Astoria NY, founded in 2012. The brewery was founded by Rich Buceta who financed the brewery by selling his collection of antique guitars[1]. The name of the brewery comes from a type of guitar that only has one (lower) cutaway[2]. SingleCut was the first brewery to making beer in Queens since prohibition, although in just seven years since their opening, there are now at least twelve operating breweries[3].
SingleCut name their beers after famous musicians, famous quotes from musicians, guitar and amp parts, or their address[4]. The beer that we're looking at here is, it would seem, named for a sketch from SNL, recreating a fictional VH1's Behind the Music episode. In this sketch the band Blue Öyster Cult, played by actors, are recording their biggest hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper". Christopher Walkin (playing their producer) requests "more cowbell" in a second take. Eric is the name of the lead singer of Blue Öyster Cult.
To date, I've only had one beer from SingleCut, and that was their Softly Spoken Magic Spells[6], an imperial IPA that I gave a 4/5, and remember liking well enough[7]. I really like their obvious love for what they're doing though, from the fun they have with their marketing, to the regular live music at their taproom (which has mini-guitar tap handles). It's one of those places I really want to visit, even though I've tried very little of their beer.
First Impressions
Starting with the can, there is a minimalist approach to their design. Each beer label has a an off-white background, with a simple, smallish image centred on the label, with information about the beer off to the sides. This beer has an upside-down, chocolate-coloured cowbell, with beer foam on top. Simple, but classy.
The poured beer is black, with a copper-coloured head. The head formed readily, but dissipated just as quickly. I've never been terribly bothered by head retention[8], especially when this can travelled from New York, to Hamburg, to Jena.
The nose is dominated by roasted grain and sweetness. There are hints of coffee and dark chocolate, but the sweetness is the thing you'll notice most[9]. This is a milk stout[10], so I was expecting a sweet nose though.
The poured beer is black, with a copper-coloured head. The head formed readily, but dissipated just as quickly. I've never been terribly bothered by head retention[8], especially when this can travelled from New York, to Hamburg, to Jena.
The nose is dominated by roasted grain and sweetness. There are hints of coffee and dark chocolate, but the sweetness is the thing you'll notice most[9]. This is a milk stout[10], so I was expecting a sweet nose though.
The Tasting
The beer is sweet, as expected, but also very roasty. It has a finish that tastes like when you bite into seeds on the outside of a loaf of bread. The sweet flavours start disappearing quickly, and are replaced by grain, roasted malt, and it all finishes with a slightly burnt coffee flavour. The beer is lightly carbonated, and this can be felt on the tongue, but it is still creamier than say, a Schwarzbier. It's all over pretty quickly on the palate, making it easy to drink quickly[11]. I concede that this is not a beer one would session, and with the exception perhaps of Guinness, I don't think that many stouts can, or should be sessioned.
Now is the time I compare my findings to that of the brewery. SingleCut claims that this beer is "a lusciously creamy, slightly sweet stout that sits atop a roast malt base and huge cocoa infusion that will rock all night long." I guess I thought that it was more than slightly sweet, but otherwise I totally agree. I can't find out if it will "rock all night long" though, as it's a Sunday afternoon, and I have work tomorrow. Maybe some other time Eric.
Now is the time I compare my findings to that of the brewery. SingleCut claims that this beer is "a lusciously creamy, slightly sweet stout that sits atop a roast malt base and huge cocoa infusion that will rock all night long." I guess I thought that it was more than slightly sweet, but otherwise I totally agree. I can't find out if it will "rock all night long" though, as it's a Sunday afternoon, and I have work tomorrow. Maybe some other time Eric.
Final Thoughts
I haven't been drinking many stouts recently. A combination of warm weather in Australia, friends that simply dislike dark beers and my new found love of sours/NEIPAs meant that they sort of fell to the wayside. However, with the winter months about to hit in Germany, I'm looking forward to drinking more dark, roasty beers. How has this beer helped that mood?
I really like the more-ish nature of this beer. I'm enjoying every drop of it, but I can see that there are some that wouldn't. I've made jokes about it before, but these mega-barrel-aged-moster-ABV stouts[12] are almost a badge of honour for craft beer drinkers. By that I mean that if you don't like some huge stout, there's a feeling you're missing something, or that you're wrong. Personally, I have appreciated a few of these, but they aren't a beer you can share with non-craft beer drinkers. They're hard to find, and expensive, and can't be the only stouts we should enjoy.
Take this beer. It is not a complex mega-stout. It's a little milky, and quite sweet, and has some interesting flavours going on, but it is an enjoyable departure from a NEIPA or sour, fruited beer every once in a while. It's an easily approachable stout, but it also isn't boring. So who can I recommend this to? Well, still not people that aren't into stouts yet[14], it's still a little too roasty for newcomers.
However, I would happily recommend this beer to people who enjoy dark beer, and I would even recommend it to stout aficionados who might feel like something a little less brutal than an imperial stout. But probably most of all, I'd recommend this beer to people who used to like stouts, but haven't been having them recently. It's a nice reminder that the stouts can be an easy drinking, cold weather beer. I'll be adding them back on to my craft beer orders.
I really like the more-ish nature of this beer. I'm enjoying every drop of it, but I can see that there are some that wouldn't. I've made jokes about it before, but these mega-barrel-aged-moster-ABV stouts[12] are almost a badge of honour for craft beer drinkers. By that I mean that if you don't like some huge stout, there's a feeling you're missing something, or that you're wrong. Personally, I have appreciated a few of these, but they aren't a beer you can share with non-craft beer drinkers. They're hard to find, and expensive, and can't be the only stouts we should enjoy.
Take this beer. It is not a complex mega-stout. It's a little milky, and quite sweet, and has some interesting flavours going on, but it is an enjoyable departure from a NEIPA or sour, fruited beer every once in a while. It's an easily approachable stout, but it also isn't boring. So who can I recommend this to? Well, still not people that aren't into stouts yet[14], it's still a little too roasty for newcomers.
However, I would happily recommend this beer to people who enjoy dark beer, and I would even recommend it to stout aficionados who might feel like something a little less brutal than an imperial stout. But probably most of all, I'd recommend this beer to people who used to like stouts, but haven't been having them recently. It's a nice reminder that the stouts can be an easy drinking, cold weather beer. I'll be adding them back on to my craft beer orders.
| Brewery | SingleCut Beersmiths |
|---|---|
| Beer | Eric More Cowbell! Milk Stout |
| Style | IPA - Session / India Session Ale |
| Alcohol | 6.0% |
| IBU | 28 |
| Price | 7.99€ |
| Untappd Global Score | 3.85 |
| My Untappd Score | 4 |
Footnotes
[1] That's pretty rock and roll. Also, how good was that collection?! Did he have a pure gold guitar or something??
[2] A cutaway is the round guitar body indentation at the top of the guitar neck that allows easy access to the higher frets.
[3] I'm not from Queens, but I used this list to find the number of breweries. I'm happy to be told of new breweries that have opened since!
[4] Not as exciting as the music theme, but their 19-33 Pilsner is named after their address, 19-33 37th St, Astoria, NY 11105, United States.
[5] For those of you that are interested, it turns out that this is a lyric from the Pink Floyd track "Breathe (reprise)" from the album, the Dark Side of the Moon.
[6] My notes read "it was a shame that I drank this straight after having tried Open Ice Hits from Sudden Death or I'd have missed the minor hop burn". Scoring beers (especially 12 in one night) is not a science.
[7] I certainly aim to keep my head where it is, but I've never had a beer and thought "that would've been much better if the head had stuck around". Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it's a very minor component for my beer tastings.
[8] During this nosing of the beer, I accidentally picked up my Coke Zero on the third smell, and nosed that thinking it was the beer. My brain exploded in shock, but I can confirm Coke Zero smells like Coke Zero.
[9] What is a milk stout? It's a stout made with lactose, which is the sugar in milk. Importantly, yeast do not have the lactase enzyme required to break lactose down into glucose and galactose, and so cannot ferment lactose. This leaves the beer with a sweetness and milky mouthfeel.
[10] Unlike, say, "Going Real Nuts" from De Moersleutel, an imperial peanut stout. That was so heavy and complex I could have drunk a can of motor oil faster than I drank the beer.
[11] Of the top ten rated beers on Untappd, five of them are stouts with ABV greater than 12%, all of which were aged in bourbon barrels.
[12] Honestly, I've also thought some were unpleasant, and carried too much bourbon barrel flavour over from the maturation, and the booze content wasn't well balanced by the addition of oak.
[13] I'd encourage them to try something like a Schwarzbier, say, Köstrizter Schwarzbier, which I reviewed here.
[2] A cutaway is the round guitar body indentation at the top of the guitar neck that allows easy access to the higher frets.
[3] I'm not from Queens, but I used this list to find the number of breweries. I'm happy to be told of new breweries that have opened since!
[4] Not as exciting as the music theme, but their 19-33 Pilsner is named after their address, 19-33 37th St, Astoria, NY 11105, United States.
[5] For those of you that are interested, it turns out that this is a lyric from the Pink Floyd track "Breathe (reprise)" from the album, the Dark Side of the Moon.
[6] My notes read "it was a shame that I drank this straight after having tried Open Ice Hits from Sudden Death or I'd have missed the minor hop burn". Scoring beers (especially 12 in one night) is not a science.
[7] I certainly aim to keep my head where it is, but I've never had a beer and thought "that would've been much better if the head had stuck around". Maybe I'm wrong about this, but it's a very minor component for my beer tastings.
[8] During this nosing of the beer, I accidentally picked up my Coke Zero on the third smell, and nosed that thinking it was the beer. My brain exploded in shock, but I can confirm Coke Zero smells like Coke Zero.
[9] What is a milk stout? It's a stout made with lactose, which is the sugar in milk. Importantly, yeast do not have the lactase enzyme required to break lactose down into glucose and galactose, and so cannot ferment lactose. This leaves the beer with a sweetness and milky mouthfeel.
[10] Unlike, say, "Going Real Nuts" from De Moersleutel, an imperial peanut stout. That was so heavy and complex I could have drunk a can of motor oil faster than I drank the beer.
[11] Of the top ten rated beers on Untappd, five of them are stouts with ABV greater than 12%, all of which were aged in bourbon barrels.
[12] Honestly, I've also thought some were unpleasant, and carried too much bourbon barrel flavour over from the maturation, and the booze content wasn't well balanced by the addition of oak.
[13] I'd encourage them to try something like a Schwarzbier, say, Köstrizter Schwarzbier, which I reviewed here.
Sources
Figure 1: https://portsidemarketspirits.com/collections/stout/products/singlecut-eric-more-cowbell-chocolate-milk-stout
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