Bonfire Beach
Coronado Brewing Company

Type: 16-oz. can
Reviewed as: American Pastry Stout
Glass: Pure Project 16-oz. snifter glass
Price: $3.50
From: Trader Joe’s in La Mesa, Calif.
Purchased: Dec. 30, 2021
Consumed: Jan. 16, 2022
Misc.: Canned on Nov. 5, 2021

Grabbed five cans of stuff I hadn’t tried on a recent trip to Trader Joe’s. Was psyched to see this one in stores. Their website called this beer “Is the best part of a beach bonfire the smores or the beers? We think the answer is both. Bonfire Beach blends all the flavors you love from freshly toasted smores (vanilla bean, chocolate, cinnamon, honey, brown sugar, and lactose) into a rich, decadent pastry stout. Needless to say, this beer is fire.”

Poured a pitch black color with two fingers of khaki-tan frothy head. Could see just a few bubbles creeping up along the sides of the glass. Excellent foamy lacing. Outstanding foamy retention. (Sight - 4.25)

Smelled roasty malts, cinnamon, brown sugar, caramel, honey, toasted marshmallow, vanilla and chocolate. Not as good from the can. (Smell - 3.75)

Tasted even better than the nose. Cinnamon jumped out, followed by brown sugar, caramel, honey, toasted marshmallow, vanilla, chocolate and cocoa. (Taste - 4.00)

Medium body. Creamy-to-sticky texture. Average-to-soft carbonation. Long, smooth finish. (Feel - 4.25)

Just a nice pastry stout and something you can’t beat for $3.50. (Overall - 4.00)

3.98 | 89 | B+

Foamy, almost exclusively so for its style, was the pour from the pint can into a clear glass Imperial pint mug. In fairness, this was at room temperature. However, this looks like an overly starched IPA, except it's biege. It's receding unfortunately slowly, unevenly and unattractively. Underneath the inches of foam, lies a liquid body nearly black coffee brown. The aroma is Cinnamonatic first, with plenty of sweetness that includes honey and brown sugar. This smells like a desert beer, as the roasted malt is hard to find and the nose would swear there are no hops. There's sweet and then there's almost too sweet. This is the latter, but at least it's not too sweet to taste. The Cinnamon and vanilla help tone the honey and brown sugar down a bit and the chocolate aspect is more of the dark variety than milk chocolate, despite the lactose. There's a nice inclusion of the alcohol that abetts the flavor and not the sweetness. There's virtually no glass lacing and there are other stouts with a smoother mouthfeel. The lactose may help defuse the alcohol, but it does add an unnecessary stickiness, without adding much to the body. Overall, it's a decent desert stout that works for what that is. It’s too sweet to even contemplate an immediate other. At its
10.5 % ABV, that's OK.

 

 

Pours a dark mahogany color with a tan head . Smell is chocolate milk,vanilla and cinnamon. Taste follows the nose it creamy and smooth with spice and brown sugar notes . Mouth feel is sweet , 8oz is plenty on this it was tasty thou.

 

 

creamy dark stout with slight sweetness in every sip