Stoutmaker.beer

On tap. Titletown brewing.

Billed as mint chocolate stout.
One of my favorite ” niche” stouts

Poured with very nice tan head that stuck around for a little bit.  But as usual with chocolate beers, it fades.  There is no doubt it’s black.  Very black.

Get very good roasty aromas right out if the gate but right behind that is the unsweetened chocolate.  Not powerful, but just enough to stick out.
The one thing that is missing here that I personally expect is,, a grassy note from the mint. So I suspect they used an extract, but did not ask.

First sip the thing I get is the feel and taste of that unsweetened chocolate. Again, great balance with the roast, which is, even for a stout, quite high.
But again I’m missing the mint. But in a weird way it feels like there is mint there.
But lo and  behold, somewhere in the after taste, after everything else washes away, the mint comes out. Like a very faint peppermint patty.
I love how it does that.

Maybe I’m jaded by my intense mint stouts. As the couple next to me says they can smell the mint way over there.

Either way.  Like the beer right now as it is. And the base stout is right where I like it.

untappd score 3.5

Well I can’t believe it’s been this long of a break. But, its pulling into winter now so should be going into stout shock any time now.

But today I have one of my stouts to put up. A holiday spiced sweet stout.

Been meaning to get a sweet stout up for a while. I think I bought these grains mid June. Since it supposed to be holiday spiced, I went with the usual ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon route.

I really wanted to be tame on the spice since I have done the cinnabomb beers before. But I may have undershot it more than I thought. There is a spice presence,, but I don’t know if you would pick it out of i didn’t tell you.

But the base,, the sweet stout.. perfection. And it’s cool how all the components are easily detectable.  Chocolate. Coffee. Roast.  I know the style says low carbonation. But I think I can come up a bit and not lose any body.

This one is not going to last long.. so I better start on another batch..

Right off the bat I’m going to say that I don’t normally like, or would you even pick out a coffee Stout. I did not know that that’s what this was, even though it says right on the bottle I did not see it

But ok here we go. Pours a very very thin head almost nothing at all. 

and

it’s been a long time since I have had a stout that is anything other than solid black..this is not black. Dark brown.. and that’s perfectly fine with me.

The first thing that jumps out at me right away is the aroma I’m expecting coffee because it’s labeled big letters as a coffee Stout but that’s not when I get the first thing I get is chocolate yes a little coffee, but of its chocolate. Big chocolate. Maybe some sweetness of a milk stout creeping in. And not that surprising because of the color .not very much roast. if any at all.

Ah but the taste is what usually gets me.  I love coffee in all shapes and forms.. but when a beer tastes like a moldy coffee filter,, it’s down the drain. (I’m looking at you Founders)

This beer however, has none of that. Coffee notes. Coffee notes in a sweet chocolate stout.  Or maybe sweet chocolate Porter would better fit this. Decent body. I’d have to say just short of full bodied.

I don’t get any hops in this at all. Even the bittering is balanced to where you don’t even notice.

I am conflicted on how to score this. I want to rate it high because I like it.. but I really would not call this a stout as it is labled by any means .

But,, Untappd isn’t a score sheet,, it a rating on how you like it.. So I will give this a 4.25.  And those who know me will say that almost unheard of for a coffee beer.