Trung Latte Milk Stout
Al's of Hampden / Pizza Boy Brewing

Poured from a tallboy can into a Duvel tulip

L: Dark, dark mahogany brown pour. Nearly black with massive foamy brown head. Great retention and crazy lacing.

S: Roasted sugars, coffee, and cocoa. Sweet and roasty. Smell is out of this world good.

T/F: Bittersweet roast... charred sugars, espresso, and dark chocolate. Sweetness and bitterness nicely mixed. Great flavor.. really hides the low ABV... would have expected a much bigger beer. Zesty carbonation... light bodied. The finish is bittersweet roast and cocoa.

O: Absolutely outstanding beer... especially given the super low ABV. You could drink this all day and barely feel it... and the flavor drinks much bigger than the beer. Love the chocolate, coffee, and milkshake character. Just what I want in the style. A++

 

This was a recent gft from a fellow member of the FGBS Drinking Team in support & furtherance of The CANQuest (tm). I find that it behooves me to drink & review these gifts quickly so that people don't think that I am trading them away or some other reason to stop getting beer for me.

From the CAN: "Handcrafted in Enola, PA"; "Pizza. Beer. Happy."; "Milk Stout with Vietnamese Coffee"; "Proudly brewed in Pennsylvania".

The Crack! of a CAN is music to my ears & when I get a spritz across my fingers, as in this case, it usually means a brimful craft CAN, which it was. This, coupled with it being a pint CAN, meant that I would be employing a slow, gentle Glug into the awaiting glass. Following the Glug, an in-glass swirl raised just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-tan/light-brown head with moderate retention. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44) with cola highlights at its edges. Nose smelled strongly of coffee, but with a cream & sugar aspect, two things that I eschew in my cup. I remember Gerry Wargo asking me if I was having coffee or a hot milkshake & soon after that, I weaned myself off of cream & sugar. Onward! Mouthfeel was kind of thin and watery, especially for the style. The taste was not as pronounced as I remember it as being on-tap/draft & I have had it that way twice, although without reviewing it. There was a coffee flavor, sure, but it seemed toned down and/or dialed back, either by/because of the lactose sugar or by dint of not using enough coffee in the beer's production. The person who gifted me this CAN said the same thing so it may have simply been this batch of CANs or perhaps it just does better on-tap. I just kept thinking that it did not really remind me so much of Vietnamese coffee as just regular coffee with cream & sugar and even then, it was kind of lagging behind. Finish was semi-dry, but tending towards sweet. Since we are asked to rate to style & not to taste, my scores will be higher than what I really thought of this beer. Just sayin'.

 

Great effort from Pizza Boy. They manage to balance big flavor and mouthfeel with low abv. This was a tasty beer to line share in the morning. Nice notes of coffee and chocolate, along with some creaminess.

 

 

Valley Road Enterprises / Pizza Boy Brewing Co. "Trung Latte"
Sampled from what seems like a 16 fl. oz. can but which is not labeled as such. "TASTE # BEANS 11/8/17 18:06"
$3 at the brewery

Notes via stream of consciousness: The sticker on the can reads "3% ALC. BY VOL." It pours an opaque black body beneath a two-finger thick head of dark tan. The aroma is distinctly coffee-like with a nuttiness, some underlying chocolate, and a soft roastiness. It smells like fresh, oily coffee beans. Very nice! In fact I think it's one of the best coffee aromas I've ever found in a beer. The flavor follows but it's not quite as authentically coffee-like, and there's an additional note that I'm not exactly sure of, something earthy, or even lightly vegetal. I know it has to be coming from the coffee beans but I'm not used to it. I was expecting some chocolate and there's a light touch, mainly appearing in the finish, giving it a kind of mocha coffee feel. The nuttiness that I found in the aroma doesn't quite come through as fully either. The roastiness remains the same: softly roasty. It's not very bitter, nor is there any acidic bite, but it's perfectly balanced. For coffee lovers this has got to be a great treat. For stout lovers it seems a little light though. It's light-medium in body and just lightly crisp. As a low alcohol beer though it's hard to complain about. Given that, yeah, there's a lot of flavor there.

 

 

 

 

A little thin but damn is it good

 

 

16 oz draft pour. Black with straw colored head that disapates quickly. Smells of black coffee and caramel. Taste is similar with a smokey finish. Reasonably sessionable stout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Fourth St BBQ in Charleroi PA poured into a pint glass:

Look: Pours a jet black color with about an inch of head. Lacing is present with some retention.

Smell: Heavy coffee on the nose which smells fantastic! Also hints of vanilla, chocolate, roasted malts, and creaminess.

Taste: Taste follows the nose for me! Getting a nice touch of coffee up front mellowed out by the vanilla, chocolate, and milky lactose which adds a bit of sweetness.

Feel: Medium bodied. Wish it was a tad thicker which is one of my only complaints!

Overall: This is a solid coffee milk stout! Can't wait to try Sunny Side Up! Second beer I have had from these guys since they have became available in the Pittsburgh market. Looking forward to other offerings from these guys!

 

This was listed at 5.2% on the board at the Bulls Head. Regardless of the abv, this was an extremely satisfying small. Sweet milky-ness complimented wonderfully by a subdued, lightly roasty coffee note. Very nicely executed by Pizza Boy, what a treat on a warm summer evening.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting low ABV stout.