This beer was a gift. I hadn't seen this on the shelf of my local
beer shop, and I'm not sure I would've picked it up if I had. I'm not normally a big fan of brown ales, and this one has the added complication of having coffee included in its process. I'm certainly hoping that the
bourbon barrel aging has assisted in bringing out some of the more nuanced points of the beer, but it's going to have to get around that coffee. It just depends on how much coffee is in it.
This is brown, but it's verging on black. It doesn't emit very much of a head, but that's not surprising for a bourbon barrel-aged beer. So, there's not to be any lacing. Instead, there is a tiny swirl of microscopic bubbles that manages to survive in the middle of the beer and along most of the sides. The aroma is distressingly coffee with some maple syrup hiding behind it and possibly some nuts. I have a bad feeling about this.
First sip is terrible. This is going to be a short review. I'm not drinking the rest of this beer. I don't like coffee in my beers, and this is a heavily coffeed beer. While I appreciate the sentiment in gifting me this beer in the first place, I cannot in good conscience give this anything more than an absolute failure of a score. This is horrific. It was a waste of my friend's time as well as my own. It was a waste of the energy that it took for my refrigerator to chill this bottle. It was a waste of energy and water having cleaned this glass before putting this vile putrescence into it.
Bottom Line: Stop putting coffee and beers.
0.0/5