Florida Stout
Carib Brewery USA

 

Too sweet. I have enjoyed plenty of Milk and Sweet Stouts in the past, but this had too much of a cloying lactose taste and lingering aftertaste that makes it hard to continue.

DATE: May 1, 2016... OCCASION: catching up on reading during a rainy night... GLASSWARE: Samuel Smith pint... APPEARANCE: two-thirds of the glass is dark black, opaque body, while the other third is a craggy, thick, chunky brown head... the mesa forms in the glass's middle, while the head leaves an articulate pattern of weaving... AROMA: sweet toffee and chocolate, as expected... the chocolate is more of Nestle's powder, with milky lactic tones complimenting it nicely... toasted oats further build a character worth revisiting... PALATE: medium-bodied, textured with a subtle activity on the tongue... this sifts quickly through the throat, with each sip inviting the next... smooth, a bit slick, and ultimately leaving an espresso aftertaste, with vanilla bean hints thrown in... TASTE: chocolate, coffee, toffee and licorice hog the tastebuds, while lactic sugars pucker the lips and ease the imbibing... the sweetness lingers with some pleasant earthiness in its spice... generally, a pleasing profile... OVERALL: as a gift from Uncle Mark--who, by the way, was given the Beer of the Month club as a gift himself--this beer is a nice surprise--one doesn't think of stouts and Florida sharing context, but this company did a nice job building a drinkable, tasty beer with enough character to distinguish itself from its genre...