Beer Review: Loak

Reviewing Loak from De Garde Brewing out of Tillamook, Oregon.

Score: 65

2014 vintage bottle served in a Kate the Great snifter and enjoyed on 05/08/14.

Appearance: Pours a dark brown burgundy color with a thin layer of tan head. Excellent lacing, good retention. 3.75/5

Smell: Poo poo, bleu cheese funkiness, chocolate and cherry funk, with a hint of coffee. Sharp sweet caramel too. The funk is the last and first thing you smell on this nose, and it is not pleasant. The poo poo character dies down as the beer breathes, but the other funkiness does not. 1/5

Taste: The taste starts off unpleasant, but either layers nicely or mellows out as it warms up. Initially, this beer has a sharp, unpleasant sweetness upfront that quickly turns tart, and then finishes with a nice bitter coffee flavor. That initial taste sensation is like a rickety roller coaster that jerks you around flavor-wise. Cherry, oak, bourbon and light caramel, with a coffee and chocolate finish. The tartness in the middle gets crisper as the beer warms and layer. The sharp upfront sweetness also mellows out over time, and melds more seamlessly with the tartness. The bitter coffee and chocolate finish is quite lovely, and is the only thing enticing me to keep sipping at first. 3/5

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, appropriate carbonation. Super dry finish. Sweet and sourish upfront, then mildly bitter on the finish. 3.5/5

Overall: This beer was flat out weird. The nose was one of the most unpleasant ones I have experienced in a long time, and the taste is initially subpar save for an excellent finish that was more or less this beer's only saving grace. De Garde makes a lot of really tasty beer, but this is one of their rare early misses (along with their Cornelio Nunez Porter).

Cost: $10 for a 375 ml bottle.