Zonker Stout - Snake River Brewing Company

    Zonker Stout is a Foreign Style Stout brewed by Jackson, Wyoming's Snake Rider Brewing Company. The can explains that the Stout gets its name from a particularly effective fishing fly. It also touts that the beer has medaled multiple times at the Great American Beer Festival.

    Zonker pours a deep, chocolatey black with a creamy, two-finger head that is just darker than khaki.

    Snake River's Stout smells lightly of chocolate and coffee, as well as some roasty notes. Hops can be slightly detected at the end of the beer's aroma.

    The Stout has a moderate body with a medium level of carbonation. The beer has an extremely creamy texture and finishes a bit sticky.

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    Zonker's flavor comes mainly from the malts used in brewing it. Up front you can taste the light roasted malts. The slight bitterness of the hops as well as a slight coffee flavor follow up the roastyness. Finally, rounding everything out, sweet, sticky caramel and chocolate malts finish off the flavor and leave a pleasant candy-like taste in the mouth.

    After trying this beer, I was glad that I poured it into a cup, rather than drinking it from the can. There are a lot of reasons that you can hear people give for why you should always pour beer into a glass, but this time, none of those come into play. My reasoning? I wouldn't be surprised if Snake River Brewing Company was run by fish, and that they have created the cans as a way to capture humans. It's classic trapping really, offer something that tastes good to the prey so that in partaking of the treat the prey unknowingly falls into the hunter's trap and is captured. If the Zonker fishing fly really is such an effective lure, perhaps the fish got tired of falling for it and have created Zonker Stout as revenge. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of hook or net comes out of the can while you're drinking the beer and then fish appear with little S.C.O.B.A (Self-contained out-of-water breathing apparatus) suits and carry you off. Another narrow escape!

    I was pleasantly surprised with Snake River's Stout. I can see why the beer has won many awards at the Great American Beer Festival. I would completely recommend anyone who is a fan of Guinness Stouts give Zonker a try as I feel that it is a much better Stout overall!

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