Three Steve Stout (Bottle)

Three Steve Stout
22 oz bottle, $4.49++, 5.2% ABV

Purchased at Maximum Beverage, West Hartford

IMG_3795This makes no sense, but when I see “Three Steve Stout” I start singing a nonexistent amalgamation of “We Three Kings of Orient Are” and “Good King Wenceslas” which, as you all surely know, is the carol which tells the wonderful tale of a king braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (which is the day after Christmas.)

I had to get that off my chest.

And shout out to fans of lesser known Christmas carols.

Y’know, I just read my review of the Three Steve Stout served on tap at the Cambridge House Brewpub in Granby. It’s a terrible review, obviously written before I cared to sort out the Cambridge House Brewpub and the Cambridge House Beer Company, which are, maddeningly, different things.

I now know who the Three Steves are. And I now know most of the history of the business and why they are two separate entities. Which, it must be said, appear to be on fine business terms with each other now, as the pub serves the one-man contract brewer (Steve Boucino – one of the Steves) on tap sometimes. Which is pretty weird when you think about.

If you DO want to think about it yet have no clue what I’m prattling on about, go read this page.
You’ll learn about the three Steves and all sorts of good stuff over there. Just keep in mind my name is Steve as well.

(Perhaps the best thing there is the explanation of the 7138 on the Cambridge House Beer Company’s labels. I got a kick out of reading some reviews of the (currently) 4 contracted beers and seeing people writing, “bottle number 7138.”

See, that’s the thing. No, I don’t want or expect anyone to poke around as much as I do to sort all this useless stuff out. The world would be a terrible place… wait, no it wouldn’t. Everything would be based on evidence and fact and research? I love that world! A world where saying, “He’s a man of faith” is an insult? Holy crap… that sounds wonderful…

Cambridge House Beer Company Says:

Classic Irish-style dry stout.

The Demidoff Altarpiece: Saint StephenAnd we’d only have good beer in this world? Citrussy DIPA’s and classic Belgians and great, roasty stouts? And Everyone would be named Steve and there’d be, like, Three Steve Stout and Fifteen Steve Black IPA and everything would be all about Steve?

Breathe.

Ladies, you calm down too. I know the idea of a world full of me can be a bit much.

So let’s all chill for a minute. If you happen to have a Three Steve Stout nearby, go ahead and have a swig. Not bad, right?

When naïve Thirty-eight Steve wrote that review about the brewpub’s version, I said that I’d doubted the bottled version would match up. At the time, the contract was with Paper City and they kinda suck. But you know what? This is a good, solid, straight-up classic roasty, malty dry stout.

Sure you get the hints of chocolates and coffees far in the background, but I often think that is more psychosomatic than anything with some of these stouts. That… or one of the other Steves in my head is just messing with me and only me.

Although, of course, if the world were like me then we’d all have suggestive Steves in our heads and we’d all get hints of chocolate and coffee in our stouts and … yeah.

Okay. That’s enough.

Overall Rating: B+
Rating vs. Similar style: B+

Cambridge House Beer Company
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