a silver medal at the 2012 LA County Fair,and a bronze medal at the 2011 San Diego International Beer Competition. It is brewed by Left Coast Brewing Co of San Clemente, California. The proudly self owned and award winning brewery started in 2004 with a 3500 barrel system which has grown to an 11,000 barrel system and has distribution to seven countries but only half of the United States.
The beer comes in a 1 pint 6 oz bomber with a fantastic silver graphic of a skeleton with top hat and cane drooped over a gravestone with Voo Doo American Stout scrawled on it. On the reverse it says " American Stout. At Left Coast Brewing Co we pride ourselves on a unique brew in the style of an American Stout Ale. Voo Doo is a full bodied, dark brew that is rich and malty with plenty of roasted barley character. This hearty stout is layered with flavors of roasted barley, chocolate, and coffee coming from the highest quality imported malts. It's creamy long lasting head completes the brew, tempting you're taste buds to be spellbound". As I'm sure my regular readers know, this is not always true. At least we can be very sure that it is indeed 8% ABV. 7-8% ABV is the perfect alcohol range to me, any less and I don't really feel it unless I have several and any more knocks me out. Let's pour it in my new gimmick mug and see how it heads.
Nose from the bottle is one of raw roasted barley and dark chocolate, kind of like Guennis in a way. You can smell wisps of alcohol coming off of it, but they have no sting. It has a rich dark beige head and a jet black color. Nose from the mug is less intense than from the bottle. It has a much stronger milk chocolate scent with a little less roasted barley and some fruity elements. On initial sip, the flavor starts out as roasted malt but quickly evolves to a bold cold brew black coffee and finishes with dark chocolate and alcohol. Mouthfeel is creamy with little acidity and no alcohol bite despite the flavor and a solid full body. It maybe has some molasses flavor, but the description by the brewery was quite accurate. Not about the long lasting head though, that lasted just long enough to take a picture of it before resigning itself to the edge of the mug.
After more or less satisfying my fascination with teletype machines, I have become fascinated with wire recorders. Although the technology has existed since the 1890's, the devices themselves had their heyday from the mid 1940's to the mid 1950's when magnetic tape recorders became cheap enough for every day people and not just large companies. Before these machines came to market you had to cut a record or gramophone spool to record you're voice which was expensive and required heavy equipment. This was all well and good for recording special messages, but was almost useless for dictation or every day recording needs. From a scientific perspective, they work just like tape recorders (quick note on the beer, it's starting to build it's head back up) where a magnetic charge is given to a metal (in the case of magnetic tape it is a metal coating and in the case of wire recorders it is a four mile hair thin strand of nickel coated steel wire) by way of a piezoelectric microphone sending signals to the machine which then magnetizes the wire. Almost all of the machines can play the recording back through an integrated amplifier and speaker. What ultimately killed the wire recorder was the sound quality being much lower than that of magnetic tape and the tendency of the wire to snap, although that had more to do with the design of the machines than it did with the media. They continued to be used into the 1960's for recording radio transmissions (which it was originally designed for) and aircraft black boxes which needed to record hours of audio in a way that was cost effective and could fit in a small package. As an added bonus, most of the machines have an art deco styling that I love.
Webster Chicago wire recorder I bid on. Sorry Dad, you know why.
Final thoughts. Good beer, it was exactly what they said it was. Although, it did take on some "meaty" qualities as I went. I don't mean that in a bad way, it has an after taste not unlike having just ate a breakfast sausage, especially when the beer has warmed. It's not the very best stout I've ever had, but it's good. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval. (as a side note, if I don't specify what music I'm listening to while writing this, assume it's ska)
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