Very thin looking and super light amber and copper coloured body with a thinnish, fast-dying off-white head that definitely doesn't look close a porter, let alone a stout, this would be lucky to pass as a brown ale by the looks. Aroma of super pungent allspice, cardamom, nutmeg and some pure ground ginger notes with a dash of bread and yeast, but no real maltiness at all to speak of and some sugars in the nose, at least. Light to Medium-bodied; Very strong spices dominate at first with the cardamom and allspice especially and then the ground ginger takes over with some canella as well, but there is no real malt support making this a thinnish, spiced beer with some sugars towards the finish. Aftertaste shows some bready yeast with a dash of nuts and other rustic qualities, but again, this is really dominated by the candy sugar and significant spicey flavours here with the ginger and nutmeg strongest at the finish. Overall, this is nowhere close to a stout, and while this is pretty obvious, it's not a horrible beer with the spice notes nicely - I'm glad I wasn't expecting a rich beer, but this is good perhaps only if you love cardamom, allspice and ginger and don't want anything strong in terms of malts. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Trader Joe's in Alexandria (Old Town), Virginia on 28-November-2020 for US$1,34 sampled at my house here in Washington on 09-February-2023.

12 oz. bottle. Seriously think this is some leftover pumpkin pie spice beer. Pours a light brown, totally unlike a stout. Nice foamy tan head, I guess. Smell, though, is just a lot of ginger snap, with nutmeg thrown in on the side. Very much like the Hard Pressed Cookie Cider I has as my previous rating. No stout character whatsoever. Just a brown ale that would be more at home with a pumpkin spice beer.

Bottle from Trader Joe's. Lacks the depth of a stout. More like a spiced ale or a thin winter warmer. I do like the spice mix, but it's totally missing that stout character. Cinnamon, ginger, cookie. Very thin caramel. Update: nearly undrinkable the second time I had this. I don't know what went wrong with this particular beer.