Reel Deel hail from Crossmolina in Mayo. They took a while to get off the ground, but they are really making up for lost time. They are brewing and bottling on site, and this is the third high quality beer that they have put out since late 2014.

Dubbed “Say Nowt Stout”, there is a cubist depiction of a man being kept quiet on the cover.

First Impressions:

You can’t help but take your first impressions of this beer from its bottle. The artwork is stunning, and really draws you in. It offers a suggested serving temperature of 11 Celcius, and lists its ingredients in Irish. My favourite ingredient was leannlusanna for hops, which translates as porter flowers (or beer/ale flowers).

When it gets out of the bottle, it continues an impact. It is a very deep brown – for all intents and purpose, a pure black. The head is a tawny brown.

On the nose there is notes of chocolate malts.

Second Impressions:

Say Nowt is a very smooth stout to drink, lightly carbonated.

The mild bitterness is very well balanced by the sweetness. As the label mentions blackcurrant, and I almost expected it to taste like Ireland’s famous stout when it has been sweetened with cordial, but it is much more subtle than this. It doesn’t kill the bitterness, it compliments it. It is, clearer when the beer is slightly warmer.

Final Impressions:

The branding of this beer is a perfect act of reverse psychology. All I want to do is to tell the world about it. I think I would feel this way even if it came in a bottle with a while label marked “BEER”, but we can never know this for sure!

It may be called Say Nowt Stout, but it is a definitely a beer to shout about.