Espresso Whale
Community Beer Works

This one pours a golden dark brown color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like creamy coffee, vanilla, caramel, and brown bread.

The Whale is absolutely one of the finest brown ales in the country, really – so any variant of that wonderful beer is going to interest me. I think the regular unadulterated version of The Whale is better than this, but this still absolutely enjoyable, with a sweet, creamy, and smooth coffee flavor, some toasty bitterness, and wonderfully caramelly and bready malt backbone. This reminds me a bit of something like Coffee Bender or Sumatra Mountain Brown from back in the day.

This is very creamy and very drinkable, with a really nice drinkability.

This is absolutely a success – anything with The Whale’s DNA in it is gonna be good for me.

Served from the can in a Lagunitas mason jar.

Pours a deep ruby-chestnut topped by dirty off-white foam. The nose is awash with coffee, precious little seeping through (okay, maybe a bit of cashew or something, I dunno). The taste also leans on the coffee aspect, but it's more coffee poured heavily on some dry maple syrup and toffee. Not bad. The body is a rather light medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a slick feel. Solid brown, especially if coffee is your aim.

Poured into a mug, the appearance was a dark amber almost brown color with a finger’s worth of white to off white foamy head. Light stringy lace. The aroma had some toast, milk chocolate, woody/earthy hops and some light espresso sweet to bitter nibs at the end. The flavor took all of the previously mentioned aromas and added in a touch of vanilla. Nice gentle aftertaste of the espresso; same in the finish. The feel was about medium bodied with a decent sessionability about it. Somewhat creamy along my tongue. Roastiness doesn’t grip as much. Carbonation felt fine and the ABV felt good. Overall, really nice coffee brown ale that brought the goods!

A spin on the Whale, a favorite from CBW. Coffee aroma rises above malt. Poured with a creamy head. Definite coffee in the first sip and second and so forth. Coffee influence balanced well and made this a memorable taste.