Stoutmaker.beer

Its getting to be that time of the season where finding stouts out in the wild is a bit easier.
Today I have one that I have seen a few times before but I never picked it up.

New Glarus Coffee Stout.

As much as I love my stouts and my coffee, coffee stouts usually don’t cut it. If they would taste like stout and coffee (like you think they would) it would be great. But sadly they usually don’t. They usually turn into something akin to celery stout or other weird veggie stout 
But then again, there are sometimes coffee stouts that are great.  Is this New Glarus Brewing 5.6% Coffee Stout one of them? Lets pour it.

A very dark, nearly black body that pours quite heavily. Can not see through it, even my LED flashlight barely cut through.

A bit of haze, but generally a clear deep ruby body. On top is a decent sticky looking tan head. Which is fairly impressive for a beer with coffee added, as the oils usually knock that down quite a bit.

Aromas are pretty impressive. Roast malt right up front, followed by sweetness and followed up by coffee if you can believe it. There is a grainy background note, but nothing with hops, or yeast notes. But that roastiness is the most dominant of all that is there, and really set it up for the first taste

I am kinda surprised that because with the roast being the biggest part of the aroma, it’s  a big bready malt blast is the first thing that catches my tastebuds. Then the roast come in. But first is breadiness. Then coffee, but very subdued.
In fact I am pretty sure that if no one said anything about coffee, or you weren’t looking for it, I doubt it would be noticed. It just kinda melds in with the roasteds.

There is a bit of hop coming through. But the label might mislead some, as it mentions “American Hops” On first thought this usually means citrusy hops like cascade or centennial.. but that is not the profile here. 
Here they went with the “other” American hop profiles, and while they do not mention which varieties, the Willamette, Mt Hood and Crystal hops are the first that come to mind.

Body is big, but wouldn’t call it full, and it does match with the middle of the road carbonation to get that bigger feel. Bitterness is low, but there and it does keep the sweetness down.   

You put all of these points together and you got a great stout here. And more importantly a Coffee Stout that I thoroughly enjoy!

Now I regret not picking this up before. But this is really how coffee should be handled in a stout. Just enough to know its there, and not try to be the upfront attraction. Let the coffee play with the other tastes and aromas, but not take it over.

I have to give this a big 4.75 out of 5 and will be stopping to get more tonight before its gone again.