Coffee Cinnamon B-Bomb
Fremont Brewing Company

 

 

2017 version sampled in a short glass as a bar share at Ansaris. A wonderful blended treat.

Stumbled upon this while gazing and kept coming back to it. Glad I finally decided to buy it. Great mouth feel, delicious taste that has the mentioned cinnamon and coffee with additional hints of berry (similar to açaí). Great beer overall!

I didn’t know if I’ve had this before, but tonight I went through my Fremonts and saw I had two, so....

A beer that lives up to the ratings and rankings.

2018 vintage, and if this has faded, I can only imagine how strong it is fresh.

Pours dark, frothy creamy head and persistent lacing. Strong scents of cinnamon, coffee, and bourbon barrel over dark malt. Taste is very strong flavors of cinnamon, coffee, dark fruit, cocoa, and bourbon barrel. Damn, does this taste good. Medium bodied, mouth watering, a very barrel forward presence.

This is just a goddamn great beer. Although I probably won’t let my second bottle get too much older, as this is in prime drinking time.

Purchased on Tavour. Dark caramel color. Smell awakens the senses with coffee & cinnamon dominating. Taste follows, light bourbon an the back end. Feel is medium thickness. Overall, a wonderful strong ale.

8 ounce pour - $10.00 at Woodstock Beer Market in Woodstock, Georgia.

Appearance: Presents a very dark brown-hued body with a slim, scant ring of beige foam.

Smell: Resounding, rich dark maltiness infused with cinnamon-vanilla infused sugar, (subtler) coffee, chocolate powder, German dark bread, dark syrup, dark fruits (all tings dark, really).

Taste: Sweetish dark maltiness of toasted black bread, rounded roasted barley, scorched raw sugars with a mellow-minded earthy, woodsy quality from the spice and barrel. A pleasant, agreeable spiciness, particularly with the cinnamon without venturing into heavy-handed crap-can Red Hot candy territory. Dark fruitiness a little raisiny. Touches of vanilla creme, Dutch stroop. Subtle coffee infusion. Good amount of barrel character, it's certainly warming though never heated or hot. Continued traces of fruit and spice on the silken finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Low carbonation. Smooth, supple mouthfeel.

Overall: Enjoyable.

2022 vintage. Poured from a waxed 22oz bomber into a snifter.

Clear bistre kissed seal brown liquid topped by a lasting event-horizon of desert sand. Thick, fine lacing; shimmering sticky panes of tears; excellent retention.

Champurrado, cocoa, cinnamon, and earthy coffee with a hints of kretek in the nose. Very mild.

Intense palate entry, heavy/sharp sweetness with waves of blackstrap, coffee, walnuts, black currant, and fig. Moderate earthy bitterness washed away by the alcohol (hints of rum and irish whiskey, and port more than bourbon) and spice notes in the long medium finish. Low tartness with hints of oak comes and goes.

Rich, creamy, medium-full bodied, with low astringency and good round carbonation. A tiny bit hot perhaps.

An interesting base beer not overwhelmed by adjuncts, though quite coffee-forward at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look: black with a thin mocha head

Smell: rich malts back up with bourbon, a nice coffee note that is strong but not overpowering, a bit of dark fruit

Taste: very similar to the smell, a great medley of flavors that come together for something greater

Feel: smooth and velvety

 

 

 

2022 vintage

Alright, time for the highest rated American Strong Ale, which is quite the ambiguous style, but I’m excited regardless. Especially after having The Rusty Nail and knowing they excel at using cinnamon as an adjunct, I can’t wait to try this. Let’s get into it

Pours a very dark brown with a finger of dark tan head that fades to a thin cap and leaves minimal lacing

This is super cinnamon forward in the nose, almost too much but it’s still nice. I’m picking up on aromas of earthy cinnamon, cocoa powder, sweetened coffee, spicy whiskey, and toasted oak

It’s a bit more balanced in taste, and very good, but I was expecting this to pop more. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting milk chocolate, toasted oak, earthy cinnamon, raisin, earthy whiskey, brown sugar, and toffee. The swallow brings notes of earthy cinnamon, sweetened coffee, milk chocolate, toasted oak, caramel, and bourbon. Gets better as it warms but I wanted more complexity out if it

A medium full body pairs with moderate carbonation, resulting in a lush yet zippy beer. Finishes dry for everything going on and drinks well below the 13% listed

Given the fact that it improves over the course of drinking it, I have to bump this one up a bit in the overall. Still not everything I was hoping for but very good

 

 

 

 

2022 version on draft.
Very solid offering.
Balanced + creamy for the amount of booze and adjuncts it has.
Still could only stomach 6oz worth.

 

 

2018 Vintage on 12/24/2021

2017 limited release Coffee Cinnamon Barrel Aged B-Bomb, imperial winter ale. Aged (4 years? or nearly 5?) in my cellar and served chilled in a Chimay chalice. Oil slick appearance and a big warm cinnamon nose that fills the room. Really that aroma is hard to beat. Flavor is creamy and mouth-encompassing with waves of caramel, cinnamon candy. Ultra-fine carbonation adds milkiness to the mouthfeel. Mocha and coffee flavors are initially mellowed but there's a more pronounced coffee bitterness in the aftertaste. Vanilla flavors from the bourbon are also mellow, and I don't get any harsh whisky flavor at all. Pretty amazing for 13.0% ABV. World-Class absolutely describes it. I don't believe I've ever had this fresh, but I have no regrets about aging it this long.

2019 Vintage

Pours out a dark brown, nearly black liquid. Aggressive pour yields a half of a finger of khaki head. The foam sticks around for a while. It didn't look too thick on the way into the glass. Stouts just have a certain way of looking and you can guess that this might not be one.

Nose indicates that it's definitely not a stout. Coffee comes forward first, but not in your face with roasty qualities. There's actually a slight hint of sweet fruitiness that accompanies this coffee. Reminds me of Jamaican Blue with its delicate, fruit-forward tones. Next is the presence of molasses spice cookie. There's this mildly bitter, peppery, spicy sort of thing lurking underneath. It smells quite captivating so far, if a little on the weak side.

Taste is everything that was in the nose and more. A natural evolution. Mildly roasty and fruity coffee, cinnamon, bitter black strap molasses, a faint bourbon/oak, black pepper, but without the heat, and dark grainy bread. Along the lines of rye or pumpernickel. I got that in the previous B-Bomb I had as well. Very unique quality. These flavors unravel spectacularly, never once stepping over each others toes or vying for attention. Nicely balanced, not too bitter, not sickly sweet.

Mouthfeel is fullbodied and smooth. Not thick like a stout, but a nice density. Not too cloying, alcohol evaporation drying it up a little. Mild carbonation.

Overall a fantastic brew for the winter. A great sipper to have with friends and to ponder life and enjoy a snowy winter landscape. Cheers to Fremont who continuously knocks it out of the park.

 

 

 

 

2019 version, aged at Fremont purchased through Tavour. My second version of B-bomb, but I haven't had the base beer yet.

This is well rounded and wonderfully balanced overall. The barrel presence is magnificent, no surprise from Fremont, rich with bourbon and mellow vanilla with hints of oaky leather. I want my funeral pyre built with spent staves from Fremont barrels.

Under all that was creamy cocoa, dates and raisins, caramel, subtle coffee, and dessert like cinnamon. This is wonderful as is, but I hope I get to try a fresh bottle someday with more assertive coffee notes.

Now having 2018, aged and purchased under the same circumstances. This version was a few bucks cheaper for some reason. This was drier and a bit roastier. Less cinnamon and surprisingly more coffee maybe. Just a bit less decadent than the 2019.

Edit 4/1/22 got my wish, now enjoying a fresh 2022 bottle. The coffee is more assertive but so is the cinnamon. I'm also getting a strong coconut note. Huge barrel presence but the figs , cocoa, and raisins are subdued. It's wonderful now, but I think I'll age the other for a year or so.

 

Pours a dark brown with tan head. Coffee, cinnamon, a little pepper on the nose. Tons of chocolate, some faded coffee notes, and cinnamon spice. There is a light heat from the bourbon barrels. It's so smooth, quite thick in its mouthfeel. In spite of the ABV and the weight of this beer, it's still a beer you want to keep sipping on.

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a quarter finger high dark tan head that has excellent retention properties and hardly died down.
S: Light to moderate aromas of bourbon, coffee and cinnamon are present in the nose, the latter of which becomes stronger as the beer warms up.
T: The taste follows the smell and has additional notes of vanilla from the bourbon barrel aging. No alcohol is perceptible.
M: It feels medium- to full-bodied and smooth on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation. The cinnamon lends hints of heat in the finish.
O: This beer does a very good job at balancing all of the flavors together and is exceptionally easy to drink considering its strength.

Serving type: bottle

2019 vintage

L -- Black with a small khaki-hued head produced with moderate pour. Minimal retention and some lacing
S -- Cinnamon, smokey oak, caramel, dark chocolate, bourbon, herbal bitters, hint of ground coffee
T -- Despite the two years of aging on this one, the coffee and cinnamon character are both there and round out the soft bourbon barrel notes very nicely. No angles are too harsh here. Also getting dark chocolate, vanilla nougat, herbal hop
F -- Medium+ mouthfeel, medium- carb. Not overly boozy or bitter
O -- The aging did wonders with this

90/100

 

#64, yummy! Toffee, chocolate, good stuff!