Sick Stephen's Strong Stout

The porter I brewed up a few weeks ago with Tom has settled in the bottle. At the time of brewing we noticed it might really be a stout based on its body. During bottling we were yet more convinced that we had a sweet stout on our hands. We cracked open the first bottle today to sample it. The alcohol by volume is around 5.5% without any strong alcohol character in the taste. The nose is not at all floral but rather conveys the scent of chocolate malt. The body is much heavier than a standard porter while being lighter than a cream stout. There was a good bit of bitterness in the flavor with a slightly sweet after taste.

By way of comparison, both Tom and I thought this stout was quite like Guinness Extra Stout if you added about 20-30% more bittering hops. With my devout love of hops this is essentially, Guinness the way I would brew it. My brewing results are somewhat like the New England Patriots: Trip Hop IPA (win), Benedictine Wheat (loss), Sick Stephen's Strong Stout (win).

One last note... This beer is named for Pope Stephen VII, who had Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, condemned, stripped of his vestments and reburied (and eventually thrown into the Tiber). Stephen was soon strangled to death and his successor, Pope Theodore II, overruled his decisions and restored Formosus. Stephen was clearly a sick, sick man. There are a lot of papal reigns which stick in my mind after having read three histories of the papacy. This is one of the top five.