Hazelnut Macchiato Stout
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

 

Poured from a 10-months-since-filled 12-oz can into a stout glass.

Look: Dark brown with a lot of bubbles, a two-inch dark tan head with good retention, and leaving abundant lacing.

Nose: Roasted hazelnuts, milk chocolate.

Attack: Not much at the very first, then rather heavy on the coffee, and then a hint of sweetness and chocolate.

Finish: Bitterness from the dark roast and coffee, and finally a bit of coffee astringency.

Mouthfeel: Medium, adequate carbonation — probably a bit too much.

Overall: This is an outstanding brewery — I’ve been there and thoroughly enjoyed it! — this, however, I don’t regard as its finest offering. The beer is about ten months’ old (though this is the first time I’ve noticed it at my beermonger’s), and that may be affecting the taste. The look and the nose set me up for great expectations; the taste didn’t follow them, and disappointed. Yes, it’s a coffee stout, but I think the heavy coffee presence could be better balanced by a greater emphasis on roasted malt and a bit more of its sweetness. Not sure when or if whatever I’ll do with the other five cans in the six pack.

 

12 oz can ($3.59) served in a Belgian snifter.

An unimpressive looking stout, but a whiff of the nutty and coffee infused aroma immediately reveals the off-centric character. Tasting finds a bold brew brimming with dark roasted notes from both the grains and the coffee. It's also a bit smokey. I thought it to be too darkly roasted but then I prefer light and medium roasted coffee beans.

 

Showing that they are much more than just tart, Crooked Stave branches out with coffee bean, roasted grain and more dessert-like tendencies.

Pouring very dark brown, easily taken for espresso black, Hazelnut Macchiato rises with a foamy light tan froth and a robust perfume of coffee, cocoa, candied nuttiness and a rounded caramel sweet scent. Rich malt sweetness also coats the early palate with caramel, chocolate, brittle and a hint of honey; and doing so with an off-pastry sense of ease.

With the sweetness slowly fading on the the middle palate, the richness of hazelnut and malt caramel brings a sweeter and more savory set of dessert flavors while a background of breakfast-styled coffee brings a earthy roast with hints of campfire and heavy toast for depth and balance. Hop bitterness is light and emphasizes a coffee-like bitterness in the beer's waning taste.

Full in body but relaxed from the stout's off-imperial status. A somber warmth of kahlua accompanies the hazelnut after the caramel dissolves and the finish brings a coffee and nutty, light liquor warmth.