Espresso Stout
John Harvard's Brewery & Ale House

 

 

On tap at brewhouse in Framingham, MA.

Fizzy bubbly smaller furkin like head fades quickly, over pitch black beer.

Nose explodes with espresso and fresh roasted coffee beans, some dark chocolate and crystal malts, and light creamy malt base.

Taste brings a lot if fresh roasted coffee, espresso, then light dark chocolate, hint of milk chocolate, light black patent and dark crystal malts, touch of caramel and vanilla. Fairly bitter with a bit of earthy hops and some from the roasty malts. Finishes a bit dry, lingering espresso, and bitter roasty malt flavors, and an earthy and spicy hop kick at the end.

Mouth is a bit thinner than I expected but I guess out makes sense for 5.7% beer, but maybe a hint of oats would help, and lower but decent for the style carb.

Overall not bad, nice fresh roasted coffee beans and chocolate flavors without the heavy roast or burnt flavors, the malts don't come through as much as they should, and the body is too light, but otherwise a nice drinkable espresso stout.

John Harvard's Framingham, MA. Nice head with light carbonation and very dark. The coffee is there but not overpowering. A bit watery but certainly drinkable. The ABV was 5.8% which seems a bit high for a stout and that was fine. Beers listed on their website are way out of date.

Second beer of the night at the JH location in Framingham. Served in a standard pint glass. Jet black color. Decent white head with slight lacing. Smell was a very light aroma of coffee. Taste was bitter like a nice solid stout. Did not get a lot of coffee flavor, and certainly not espresso. Thick body but smooth and creamy also. Easily drinkable. Reminded me more of an Irish stout than a coffee stout.

This beer pours thick jet black with a one and a half finger of tan, thick foamy head. Nice head retention which left thick sticky lacing on the glass. Nose is rich with coffee, touch of hazelnut, and roasted and burt malts. Taste is of sweet chocolate up front, bit of toffee, some caramel malts then moves to roasted and burned malts, and bitter espresso. It definitely has the bitter espresso aftertaste. This is a heavier bodied beer with a thick, creamy mouthfeel to it. It's relatively filling but tastes so damn good that you just keep drinking.

Appearance: Pitch black, topped by a dense brown head with very nice retention. Leaves sheets of lace on the side of the glass.

Smell: The aroma is fairly light: coffee and roasted grain.

Taste: Sweet upfront, chocolate flavors move into a somewhat bitter coffee finish. Sweet all the way through. Needs more balance.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and smooth. Low carbonation.

Drinkability: Very drinkable, sweetness is there but isn't too cloying.

Poured @ the Cambridge location on 12/14/07.

A wonderfully sustained, dense, extremely creamy light tan head tops off this beauty of a beer. Of course, its pitch black in color. Whoah, the nose jumps on you; an extreme coffee roast aroma, like it came straight from the pot. The fairly full body is met with a dense, exceptionally creamy and smooth mouthfeel. It certainly paves the way for the deliciously coating dark chocolate malt tone, which remains creamy and quaffable. The french roast creeps in, but never overwhelms nor lives up to the potent smell. Thankfully, the acidity is kept to a minimum as well. A touch of smoked peat ties it up nicely. The finish is even-handed with milk chocolate sweetness, faint roast, and a deft touch of vanilla bean. Best offering I've had at JH's. Hopefully, it'll remain more than a one-off.

Puttered about in my Cinque-Cento with this one on 10/4/2004. 16-oz. pour in a shaker glass at the Cambridge location.

According to the beer menu, 4.5% ABV and a three time medal-winner at the Great American Beer Festival. Initial plane of half inch, tightly wound head with a knife’s edge cut where the mocha cream colored effervescence met its liquid progenitor. Deep, dark black hue. Crunchy, sunburned and hardened caramel with roasted oats and baker’s chocolate in bouquet. Flagrant espresso sweetness up front to taste with a back end of hazelnuts and pan-seared pine nuts. Medium bodied and absolutely clean finish is a wonder given the espresso notes.

This one needs to be tasted to be believed. Visions of sipping one or more of these while sitting watching the day drift by in the Piazza Navonna, rather than subjecting myself to the ubiquitous lager swill that most of the cafes serve, dance through my mind.

Had this one at the DC John Harvards. They had it on both the regular tap, and as a cask-conditioned brew. Sadly, I got there around closing time and the cask tap was already shut down. I will have to return soon to try it.

Beer was served in a plain pint glass. Pitch Black in color, with little head. The rich smell of nutty/coffee was wafting through the air. Very good aroma. This is a rather rich, complex stout. They really nailed the coffee style, it's an excellent blend. Not sure if the beer was cafeinated, but that would not be surprizing. Taste was good, lots of rich coffee flavors and a strong backing note of the stout. Mouthfeel was good, but nothing extraordinary. This is not a beer for a warm summers BBQ, but it was easy to drink down. Overall an excellent stout.

For this beer John Harvard's took their Milk Stout and added real espresso beans. The waitress says that the beer is even caffinated. Nice deep dark brown/black color with a tan head that lasts for the entire beer! Smells like a latte with hints of malts. Tastes like a coffee with sugar added. Nice rich coffee flavor with the sweet stout malts adding enough sweetness to cut any bitter flavors from the coffee. Thinner mouthfeel than expected. This is an excellent aspertif or dessert beer. Excellent alternative to having a coffee after dinner! Maybe even a good breakfast beer...

Really nice coffee aroma. It's not just the coffee-like aroma of some of the darker malts, but real quality coffee. Appearence is nice, black, but not quite opaque body. The head is large and frothy and lasts. The flavor and mouthfeel are where this beer falls short. The coffee dominates the flavor, but not because it's overdone, the coffee is tastefully done and pretty much spot on, but the malty flavors of a great stout are lacking. I would have likes to have seen a fuller, richer malt base backing up the coffee. A similar problem befalls the mouthfeel. It's just to thin and would have benefitted from a richer feel. I actually debated on the flavor score for this beer. Should it be a 3.5 or a 4. The nicely handled coffee flavor is wonderful, but the malts are a letdown. In the end, I decided to go with a 3.5 flavor score since the beer's base is no more than average. Still an excellent beer and I would drink it again.

John Harvard's Cambridge. Strong head and carbonation, very dark. The coffee is there but not overpowering. My choice of the night - waiting for their Imperial stout which will be ready by mid October. The ABV is 4.8-5%.

Just as dark as a stout needs to be with a great looking tan lace, aroma and taste of clean espresso beans … no astringency at all. Lots of roasted flavours but the espresso flavour jumps out a bit more than the roasted malt. A great beer to start off with or keep the night going.