Tooth and Nail Fortitude (5.4%)

A while back, Matt Tweedy at Tooth and Nail Brewing sent me a selection of his beers, which I dutifully logged in the review library for later posting. As springtime – or whatever you call what’s happening in southern Ontario this week – is a season I associate with malt-forward beer styles like brown ale, doppelbock, Belgian style dubbel, and oatmeal stout, I thought now would be a good time to trot out my notes on Fortitude.

(As when I reviewed Tooth and Nail’s Truce Holiday Ale a while back, a disclosure is appropriate here. Please see the second paragraph of that entry for details.)

Pitch black with a dense, tan head, this is a beer I have enjoyed numerous times on tap at Bar Hop, but have only had the opportunity to try from the can a couple of times, maybe three or four at a push. Thankfully, it doesn’t suffer one bit from the packaging.

On the nose, it is attractively chocolaty with dark roast coffee notes emerging alongside a slightly creamy sweetness as the beer warms, all accented by hints of dates and prunes. The body announces its flaked oat content with a smooth, silky body that starts lightly sweet and espresso-ish with very dark chocolate notes. This segues nicely to a rich and round, still creamy body that offers a hint of port wine along with medium cocoa content chocolate, a bit of milk chocolate, sweet, medium roast brewed coffee, raisins, and a touch of porridge, all drying as the flavour progresses. The finish completes that drying character nicely, leaving lingering notes of mocha on the palate.

While unmistakably an oatmeal stout up front, the character of Fortitude deftly incorporates elements of both that style and Irish dry stout into its overall experience, making the beer both highly satisfying and deliciously quaffable.

84 ($3.50/341 ml can from the brewery)