Planet Bean Coffee Stout
Spring House Brewing Company

4.14/5  rDev +2.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Poured from a 22oz bottle into pint glass in June 2017. Drank it about 2 weeks after purchase. No packaged date on the bottle.

Appearance: Dark black with a thin tan/brown head. Head is thin, and leaves a good amount of lacing on the glass, more than most stouts.

Smell: Strong aroma of coffee and roasted nuts. There is a hint of chocolate as well, but overall the roasted coffee is most pronounced.

Taste: This beer is apply named 'Planet Bean', as the coffee flavor dominates. There are additional flavors of roasted malts, and chocolate. There is some hop bitterness to enhance the taste and add some complexity, but it is dominated by the coffee flavors.

Mouth-feel: Strong, and with a very smooth creamy body. Matches the 7.0% alcohol listed ere, I do not see the ABV on the label. Sweet and not as bitter as some other stouts.

This is an interesting stout, and it has a variety of flavors that adds a nice complexity to the beer. It is very smooth. It is too creamy and I would prefer a little more hop bitterness, but I would buy this again.

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3.96/5  rDev -2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Poured into a mug, the appearance was a dark brown close to black color with a thin off white to almost ran foamy head that dissipated at a nice pace. Messy lace leaves some filminess. The aroma had a soft sweet to roasty blend of dark and milk chocolate malts. Obvious amount of roasted coffee beans. Sly vanilla underneath. The flavor blends sweet to roast between coffee bean, milk and dark chocolate. Vanilla seems barely there. Nicely blended roasty to sweet aftertaste and finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a good sessionability about it. Mild carbonation. Soft acidity, but acceptable. ABV felt good. Overall, nicely done coffee stout. I would have this again if I could get it.

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4.18/5  rDev +3.5%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

16oz pounder can poured into an East End Brewing snifter:

Look: Pours a nice jet black color with about an inch of head present and little to no lacing!

Smell: Tons of coffee on the nose along with a bit of chocolate and roasted malts!

Taste: Taste pretty much follows the nose on this one! Lots of coffee present and some chocolate. Getting some bitterness from the coffee.

Feel: Medium bodied. Nice creamy mouthfeel. Wish this had a bit more of a heavier body though.

Overall: Nice coffee stout here! I would revisit this one when it comes out next year!

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3.96/5  rDev -2%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours pitch black color with a nice brown 1-2 finger head that faded slowly and left really good lacing. Smells of cold pressed coffee, roasted malts, charred wood, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, faint piney hops and brown sugar. Really nice to inhale, great start to this brew.

Taste drops off quite a bit. This is roasty with nice coffee and burnt malt notes, but then it's basically like a Guinness with some Starbucks bold poured in it. It's a good beer and tasty, yet not close to how good it smells. There are roasted grains, chocolate, light espresso and charred notes but it lacks the robust coffee I got in the nose. It's thin and a little watery, lacking the stout texture I expected, but it went down easy enough and masked the 7% ABV quite well. Overall it's an above average beer, mostly because the coffee accents were so enjoyable.

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3.7/5  rDev -8.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

16 oz can poured into a snifter.

Appearance
Black. 1-2 fingers of deep brown head. No light penetration.

Nose
Medium roast coffee, caramel, raisin, prune, dusted cocoa, and roasted barley.

Taste
Medium roast coffee served black. Caramel and light roasted barley. Hints of raisin and prune with a dusting of cocoa.

Mouthfeel
Medium bodied, smooth, creamy, and balanced.

Overall
Easy drinking with a nice coffee flavor backed by a mellow Stout base.

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3.65/5  rDev -9.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Pours black with one finger brown head. Very light lacing. Aroma is deep coffee and hints of sugar cane. Taste is coffee not as deep as the aroma showed. Very thin and over carbonated for a coffee stout.

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3.85/5  rDev -4.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Can dated 1/25/17 into pint glass. Pours a nice oily black, with no shading around the edges. Thin tan head. Initial impression is coffee and more coffee, with maybe a hint of cream and sugar. Really, you could almost swap this into your coffee mug and hardly notice the difference. Smooth mouthfeel; too much carbonation for a stout. Finish is coffee too.
Kind of one-dimensional. Not quite enough body for a stout. Over-carbonated. But not too bad, all things considered.

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3.57/5  rDev -11.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Pours cola black with two fingers of tan head that leave decent lacing.

Creamed coffee, nutty malts, chocolate and a hint of vanilla compete in the nose.

The nutty malts are front and center in the taste. Greasy spoon quality coffee grounds are present, too, fairly stale with a slight cherry note. It has a dry, milky, woody finish, without a whole lot of depth. Not at all creamy, chocolatey or robust, either.

Relatively thin bodied with strong carbonation.

Worth a taste, but too dry and too thin for my taste. Sort of reminds of what a coffee Guiness would taste like. If that sounds good to you, you might enjoy it more.

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4.03/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Poured a black body with minimal head and no lace. Coffee bean aroma with slight lactic and sweet notes. Smooth body as there is a coffee taste is with sweetness and hint of lactic quality and clean finish.

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4.07/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Sampling a pounder can at cellar temp poured into a snifter. The beer is a gift from my brother Brian. thank you!
The beer pours a dark cola color with no light passing through my glass. I get a 3 cm spongey tan head with a fairly assertive pour. The foam fades slowly leaving dense lattice on my glass and a very sturdy surface layer.
Aroma is heavy with coffee grounds, very roasted and slightly bitter coffee scents. There are some light milk chocolate hints but coffee is dominant and the booze and hops are both absent at this juncture.
First sip reveals a light to average body with mild carbonation and a bit of sticky texture. Easy drinking for a bigger stout, a little more body would enhance this beer.
Flavor is all coffee with roasted and a little bitter grounds mixing together. I do get just a little bit of sweet chocolate, but the finish is all coffee with some lingering roast. I dont get hops nor booze on the taste profile either. I find this beer easy to drink, it is a little one dimensional, but it is good for what it is, a nice coffee themed beer.

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3.9/5  rDev -3.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Solid blend of dark malts and coffee taste. Pours dark translucent black with slight to moderate head. Slightly thin on taste. Not great, but certainly not bad and quite drinkable too.

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4.19/5  rDev +3.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Served 38F from the 22 ounce bomber into a 14 ounce tulip.

Dark brown light black.

Nose is cat piss acidic brewed coffee. Sweet, malty and roasty.

Taste is very similar to Kerplunk, but not quite as good. This is much more acidic. Coffee is the most dominant flavor in the profile, followed by dark malts. This has a very acidic taste to it. Which is somewhat expected for a coffee stout. There is a hollow and acidic aftertaste. I think they slightly overdid it with the coffee on this one, but the base stout is still really good. Similar to Kerplunk and Big Gruesome.

Mouthfeel is really nice, aside from the acidic aftertaste. Thick, smooth, with beautiful head retention.

No bottle dates on any of these Spring House Bombers. No idea when they produced or bottled. Spring House stouts do tend to taste better with age (4-8 months), so it's not a huge deal, but there is so little information on the labels with regards to ABV%, product description and bottle dates. I really wish the marketing people here would be somewhat more descriptive.

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3.22/5  rDev -20.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

650 mL bottle. Black body. Smell is intense coffee. Pretty nice coffee aroma, too. Rich without being acidic. Taste is equally strong coffee. There's barely any beer here. Less rich. Sharp and bitter coffee. Light nutty malt and that's it. Light body, but maybe just seems that way because of all the coffee. Not bad. Not great.

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4/5  rDev -1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours about jet black, a bit thin (but not in a bad way) with no lacing and a fizzy head that recedes quickly.

Nose is coffee.

Flavor is huge on Coffee. This is coffee and a bit of stout - coffee is hugely dominant.

Nice, smooth, well rounded mouthfeel.

Not complex, not a lot going on. But huge, really nice coffee flavor. Would definitely have again.

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3.98/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

tap

Pours jet black, light tan lacing for a head.

Smells of brown sugar, fresh roasted coffee, licorice, and toffee.

Tastes of brown sugar, coffee, licorice, and toasted bready malts. Coffee bitterness throughout.

Medium body with stinging carbonation.

Very good dark stout with some strong licorice and coffee flavor. Fairly unique and definitely worth trying.

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4.29/5  rDev +6.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Paid about 9 bucks for this which is more than the regular imperial stout so it MUST be good!

A - Light pour produced a 1/4 of head that dissipates quickly beer color as deep dark and black as I always want.
S - Very nice brewed coffee with chocolate and mild mocha bean bitterness.
T - Like a cold cup of coffee this beer is what I wanted Terrapin Wake and Bake to be strong coffee taste smooth with lingering bitterness and a semi sweet body making for a tasty beer experience,
M - So smooth and bold with straight up cold coffee taste.

Overall I don't care if people say it's one dimensional because its a great dimension a coffee flavored stout done right! If you need more add the whipped topping!

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4.16/5  rDev +3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Bomber > Tulip Glass

A - Pitch black with a finger of fizzy light tan head, no lacing.
S - Coffee bomb. I mean its a lot, which is amazing, it smells so fresh, some bitter dark chocolate roasts, a hint of smokiness. Not complex by any means, but wow on the coffee.
T - Full out coffee assault, tons of freshly roasted and ground coffee, bold and black, dark earthy bitterness from it, light nuttiness, toasted grain, roasted chocolate malt, almost like baking chocolate.
M - This is what I like least about this beer, its kinda thin, a tad watery if you will, fizzy, which makes it shockingly easy to drink, but I'd rather prefer this to be thick and viscous, chewy, let it linger more.
O - If you love coffee beers this is a must try beer, tons of fresh coffee flavor. That being said it is a very one-dimensional kind of beer, I would like to see this amped up with more malt and alcohol, thicken up the feel and add some complexity to it.

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3.54/5  rDev -12.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

Poured into a snifter.

3.75 A: Black color. Two fingers of creamy/frothy tan head. Retention is a about below average but finger ring of lacing is left.

3.5 S: This is all about the coffee. Dark roast coffee dominates with roasted barley upping the bitterness and char. Mild caramel and chocolate sweetness. Straightfoward, but pleasant.

3.5 T: The taste is big coffee as well. The base beer functions as a vessel for the coffee. It doesn't add a whole lot to the coffee flavor. Roasted barley adds more roast. It's fairly well balanced with a mild caramel and chocolate to combat the roast.

3.75 M: Medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Mildly creamy and super smooth.

3.5 D: It's good, but it's one dimensional.

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4.48/5  rDev +10.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5

Look: Pours pitch black. The head is a ligth tan in color, but fizzy and quickly dissipates. I don't like nitros, but I prefer the head on a Stout to stick around atleast a bit longer than this.

Smell: Perfect. Exactly as I imagine any coffee stout should smell. Like coffee. It has a hint of sweetness, which I do like to add some sweet creme to my coffee generally.

Taste: Pretty good. But not quite as good as I had hoped. While coffee is the most upfront flavor, obviously, it seems a bit light, and not as robust as I had hoped. Like a light roast.

Feel: Not as full bodied as I'd like it to be. Feels a little thin for a coffee stout.

Overall: It's really good. I'm only nitpicking because I expected it to be better.

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3.94/5  rDev -2.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A - Oil black with a thick, creamy layer of toffee colored foam. The foam layer looks inviting.

S - Dark roasted malt, mocha, and coffee beans.

T - Roasted coffee from start to finish.

M - Full medium body, creamy & silky in texture.

O - Packed full of coffee flavor.

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4.5/5  rDev +11.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

A really well done coffee stout from Springhouse. I was worried at first considering I haven't been a fan of their other beers, but this one really wows me. Huge coffee nose with roasted malts and dark chocolate. Flavor is a blast of coffee, some roasted malts, dark chocolate, a touch of licorice, and a nice cacao sweetness.
Mouthfeel is silky smooth with just enough carbonation to carry the flavors through. Well done, Springhouse.

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2/5  rDev -50.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 1.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.5

22 oz bottle poured into tasting glasses at a bottle share

Bottle was roughly 3 weeks old.

The beer pours jet black with some deep brown shading around the surface. Not really any head and hard to agitate any out of the beer. The smell delivers coffee notes but not really anything else.

This beer tastes like 2 day old office coffee. The beer has absolutely no body. It is just as thin as coffee as well. I'm surprised someone would put this in a bottle. This recipe needs to be blown up. The coffee flavors taste stale, burnt, and old. They're strong but not palate numbing. The mouthfeel is so thin, which in this case helps the flavor leave quickly. A huge miss here.

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2.99/5  rDev -26%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 2 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.75

Poured from a 22, this one pours a deep, dark brown that looks black at a glance, but when held to the light, there's no ruby - just a deep, root-beer brown. A sandy tan/brown head rises on the pour but falls to a film in a minute or two.

At first it smells just like cold-pressed coffee, but upon closer inspection, there's a dry, roasty barley beneath. Really mono-tone with the roasted bean and barley, but delightfully so.

Starts with a nice blend of dry, clean raosted notes, almost like a clean brown ale crossed with a porter and soaked in coffee, which is quite enticing, but the delight doesn't last. It quickly nose-dives into an astringent, bitter, over-roasted coffee flavor. What was awesome in the nose came back to bite this beer in the flavor. Too bad.

Feels clean and smooth with just a soft foam of carbonation to add a touch of viscosity.

This is really almost too much to drink. The astringent over-roasted coffee flavor has made me contemplate a drain-pour, but I think I'll hold out. Too bad.

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2.83/5  rDev -30%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2 | overall: 3

Large format bottle with no date anywhere. $6.?? at WFM. Poured into two pint glasses. Purchased about a week or two ago from the cold room. Label is different than the one shown. Capped not corked.

A- Very dark and murky. Sludge(coffee grounds?) from the bottom of the bottle changes the color to a lighter brown. Sticky head disappears about half way through the beer. Looks watery once the head dissipates.

S- Very coffee forward smell but it reminded me of crunching on a coffee bean more than a good cup of brewed coffee, dissipates after a few minutes.

T- coffee and some vanilla in the finish. Some roast but really nothing great here. Watery old iced coffee is what this reminds me of.

M- Thin and watery like a bad cup of diner coffee. Very little carbonation in the mouth.

O- Not one I will go back to. FBS blows this away and is a much better price point as well. Maybe this was an old bottle? Coffee smell was there so I think it was pretty fresh. Tried to support another local but this beer is unsupportable.

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4.32/5  rDev +6.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25

Poured from tap into pint at standard tap philly. Pours a deep brown mud with thick tan head. Awesome coffee aromas...straight up coffee. Taste is roasted coffee and chocolate. Not much else but is delicious. Smooth as silk. This is a fantastic coffee brew...highly recommend this one.

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