Or so I had hoped.
Welcome back to Beer Cruise, after an unexpected hiatus involving a fight between me and my bike and the ground. Guess who won? Turns out pain and medication don't mix well with beer and attempting to be funny (emphasis on attempting).
So what delicious malt beverage has the venerated honour of being put in the spotlight this week? Well it's the beer that, according to science, should absorb that light and everything else around it; Singularity, from Driftwood. As you might have divulged from my cryptic introduction, Singularity seems like it was not what I expected. A correct assumption. And let me just get one thing straight:
This beer is not for me.
Such a sad thing to admit, considering all the elements were correct for an ultimate explosion of praise and admiration being flung at Driftwood with reckless abandon. It's a Russian Imperial Stout, for one, and if you know me even in the slightest, you know that I have a tender place in the region where my heart otherwise would be for this kind of beer. Second, it's 11.6% alcohol. Yes, you read that right; 11.6%. That's stratospheric. That's...monstrous. And third, this beer has presence. Much like the Belgian Black reviewed a few articles back, this beer exhumes menace with its silky black label, its wax-coated bottle top, the simple-yet-stylish artwork and that sinful name. Singularity. Yes, it's just downright satisfying to say.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction largely ends there. To say Singularity was not what I expected is an understatement. I've never had a stout at all like this. Now, I'm not going to suggest for a moment that this is a bad beer, because Driftwood knows their way around a brewing vat, and it's entirely likely that this comes down to subjective taste. Unfortunately for them, subjective taste is what this blog is all about. This beer more closely resembles (and I know this is damn near heresy to speak of) a wine than a beer. I know, I know! It's difficult to explain exactly why, but it has that stronger fermentation taste, and lacks any real distinct taste of malt, coffee or chocolate easily detected in most good stouts.
It's certainly not offensive or any such thing, it just fails to wow. Horrifyingly, there are even mediocre stouts that I would easily pick over this. Why? Singularity weighs in at over $10 a bottle. Ouch. Now while this sort of price isn't entirely unusual, I do expect it to rather blow my mind at such a cost, considering beers half that price have done as much. And this...doesn't, sad to say. Maybe it's just me; maybe others out there will love it. I certainly wanted to. I just...don't. If I had to sum this beer up in a single word, it would be, sadly, 'disappointing'.
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| I wanted to like you...so much. |
Taste: Stouts are the pinnacle of beer technology, and chief among them are the Russian Imperials. This one, however, doesn't really fit the bill I had in mind. It's not boring or bland by any stretch...it's just unusual, and not in the way I would like.
Aroma: Honestly, it just smells like fermented...something. Again, like the flavour, not awful, just bizarre for a stout.
Aftertaste: It may be beyond my palate but I just could not detect anything worthy of note (Get it? Note? Like notes of coffee? Lol pun!).
Recommended?: No
Verdict: This is the first beer I've reviewed and have given a solid 'do not recommend'. That's sad, very sad, because I was so looking forward to it. And it's not to say that this beer is terrible necessarily; I just cannot recommend it entirely on the basis that I did not enjoy it, and I do not believe the high price tag to be worth the risk if you're on the fence about it. Sadface, indeed.
Score: 3 mugs out of 10.
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