Hardywood Gingerbread Stout

Name:                 Hardywood Gingerbread Stout

Style:                  Imperial cream stout

Twist:                 made with honey and ginger

Strength:             9.2%

Poured from a 750ml corked & caged bottle.  Served in a snifter.  This is my first beer from this company.

Looks more or less like every imperial stout around, impenetrable night black.  The foam is offwhite and not quite a finger high (maybe two-thirds of a finger), but it retains very well.  Carbonation appears ample with very fine bubbles.

The aroma is a dead ringer for gingerbread cookies; no surprises there.  Ginger, molasses, sugar, and bread dough.  The honey in this is more subdued, as is the lactose.  Some faint coco powder.

Hardywood enthusiastically tried to make the beer equivalent of the gingerbread man and they wildly succeeded.  The honey is a little bit more upfront on the palate, but I would still say most of it got fermented out.  The ginger, however, doesn’t even try to hide itself; it veritably coats the mouth in a warm glow of Christmas cheer.  Though Gingerbread Stout initially finishes surprisingly dry for a cream stout, as it warms more of the underlying lactose sweetness shows itself.  I still wish it was a touch more sugary, but not much more.

Rear label

As for the base stout flavors, they have trouble making their presence known amongst the onslaught of ginger.  There is a slight hint of chocolate from the barley but not much else.  The lactose primarily provides body rather than flavor.


If Southern Tier tried to make a gingerbread cookie stout, it would probably taste like a sweeter version of this.  While enjoyable in small quantities this really should be shared at the family dinner table, as the ginger starts to wear down the palate.