Panama Jose
Canteen Brewhouse (Il Vicino)

 

a mexican chocolate coffee stout, a workup of their gabf medal winning panama joe which is just the coffee, doctored up with some cocoa, cinnamon, and chili (at least thats what i taste), some combination of that stuff anyway, its all really well integrated, and the coffee still shines more than whatever else is in here to me, which i exactly what i was hoping for, nice accents from the other adds though for sure. the coffee is apparently local, and its fantastic, i want to drink it on its own, it adds a nice richness and roasty quality to the beer, hints of dark chocolate too. warming autumnal cinnamon is there in nose and taste and sort of gives way to a pepper type warmth before too long, but it stops well short of being hot, and it adds a lot of cool complexity to a well made but quite basic stout that would miss both of these if they were gone. cocoa goes wonderfully well with the coffee and the dark barley, and there is a light smoke element coming out too at the end, especially as i let me glass warm up a little bit. this is fun stuff, really well made beer. id love to try the original panama joe, but i was stoked on this special variant when i visited the fantastic canteen brewhouse!