Sixpoint Craft Ales Diesel Stout [Beer Review]

Earlier this year a small brewery in Red Hook, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, made a lot of people in the northeast very happy when they chose to start canning their brew. That brewery? Sixpoint Craft Ales. Up until recently you could only enjoy their fine, and often experimental, beer on tap which meant in the bar or, rarely, from a growler at home. They initially launched 4 options and then began putting out seasonals, starting with Autumnation. Their newest seasonal is one of Sixpoint’s oldest recipes, Diesel, a hoppy stout meant for winter and based on Founder Shane Welch’s homebrew recipe. We’ve been fans of Sixpoint since Devon and I visited the brewery back in 2006 so we were happy when they released cans. It’s with that excitement that I dive into a 16 oz can of Diesel Stout.

Diesel pours just like raw crude, jet black and totally opaque! If you look close and think real hard, you might see some light showing through...but I think that’s just your mind playing with you. A tawny head on top completes the picture of a delicious looking brew. Overall, it’s got what I look for in a stout: it’s black, not highly carbonated (at least it doesn’t seem to be) and it’s in my glass.

While it looks delicious, it smells perhaps even better. Smooth, creamy and super chocolatey. It almost smells like chocolate milk...with hops! Piney hops complement the aroma that once so delighted you as a child and lets you know that you are, in fact, dealing with a beer and not a dessertified milk drink.

Once you sip it you come to find that while stunning looks and a great smell are important, the key to a great beer is the taste. And this one has it to spare, it’s delicious! It’s so smooth on the tongue, which is hard to do given the hop bitterness that Diesel brings. Once you’re passed the hops you get a chocolate-filled, smooth stout that finishes dry and lingers in the back of your throat with a dry cocoa-like finish.

I picked this bottle up at Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont.