Beer of the Week

The beer: Soft Serve - Neapolitan Twist

The brewery: Big Oyster Brewery, Lewes, Delaware

Description (from the website): "Introducing 'Twist' our neapolitan stout loaded with fresh cocoa beans, vanilla bean and subtle hints of strawberries. This unique twist on our soft serve series will have you running to Big Oyster for more."

Would I buy it again? This is one of those fancy dessert stouts that are technically perfectly tasty and good to drink, but it's been so packed full of flavors that it ends up not really tasting like much of anything beyond generally sweet. I've never had neapolitan ice cream, but I shared one of these with someone who has, and I have it on good authority that this doesn't taste like that. I probably would not buy this again.

Beer of the Week

The beer: 10 Layers

The brewery: RAR Brewing, Cambridge, Maryland

Description (from the website): "Based off the state dessert, we tried to pack as much sweet chocolate in this stout as possible."

Would I buy it again? It may be difficult to believe, but Marylanders don't solely subsist on crabs and Old Bay. We do eat other foods. That's the royal we, since I've never had Smith Island cake, but it is a pretty famous dessert that originated here in the Old Line State. It's even the Maryland state dessert. So, how's the Smith Island beer? The initial taste is promising, but it's got a bit of a bitter aftertaste that I don't particularly care for. Not enough to ruin the beer, which is still pretty solid, but there's a lot of competition between dessert stouts. There's a million more where this came from, and since this didn't absolutely wow me, I probably wouldn't buy this one again.