Abstraction - Coffee
Tree House Brewing Company

Canned 4/3/19. Deep brown with a finger of beige colored head, solid retention and mediocre lacing. Aroma is faint roasted malts with a little bit of chocolate sweetness. If there was any coffee aroma, it's long gone. Taste is pleasant, if unremarkable. As with the nose, any coffee is long gone. What is present is a solid, if unspectacular base beer. Light roast, reasonably full mouthfeel and smooth. May need to revisit fresh some day.

So after regular ass Abstraction scored through the roof with me, figured this would be an interesting development.

Pours dark brown into a Sierra Nevada XXX party tulip glass, 1/2" lighter brown head, great retention. The aroma is nice, the base stands out for hitting both rich roasted malt notes, adequate coffee and even a slight nod to silkiness at the same time.

Taste imparts plenty of coffee and chocolate malt notes. It isn't the biggest coffee beer in the coffee arms race, but it is good and that is more important. Mouthfeel remains dedicated to the smooth component, not sacrificing bitterness or roastiness but still pushing the coffee onto the palate. Still carries the alcohol amazingly well. Ooof, do you ever get tired of people talking about oxidation on beers that aren't even a year old? Damn that word got overplayed to the point of being incorrectly used.

At some point you have to talk about diminishing returns, the base Abstraction is so damn near perfect, it becomes very difficult to improve upon it, much less even maintain its awesomeness once you start making changes. This is good, but I think the base was better, quite a rare statement.

 

 

 

 

16oz can dated 3/13/20.

Pours opaque black with a half inch head of brown. Retention and lacing are average. Dark roast coffee, bakers chocolate, milk balls, and vanilla in the nose. Full bodied with a chewy, tacky mouthfeel. Roasty and rich on the palate. Chocolate, espresso, black licorice. Finishes mostly dry with lingering coffee and chocolate.

 

 

 

 

Pours jet black with a finger of short lived light brown head. Aroma is super roasty with black patent and some lightly sweet chocolate; not very complex but I dig it. Taste of a like the aroma. Super roasty with what tastes like black patent malt. If there is coffee here it’s just coming across as a very dark roast, something like an Italian roast. Fills little sweet upfront but finish is more balanced. Medium-full bodied with moderate carbonation. Overall a very tasty beer, much more enjoyable than I recall it being.

 

Pours a squid ink dark brown. No head retention to be seen. Smell of cola, perhaps this is oxidized. Yep, it's oxidized. No wonder this brewery says to drink fresh! For the sake of tasting notes, there's coffee, Dutch baker's chocolate, a little oat. I'm sure that right off the line, this would have been great, but you can't expect breweries to make beers that last anymore.

Pours a rich black, amazing nose inputs, wonderful blends that leaders to an amazing brew. 2018 can that I am not sure of the brew date but I just drank it today. 3/8/2020. If this aged I am sure glad it aged in my closet and not someone else’s. I must have had some fresher because I have only bought it on one of my few trips to Tree H. Wish I could remember what the fresher one tasted like. Oh well, guess I will have to make a trip back someday. . Certainly moved close to the top of my list of imperial stouts.

 

 

 

 

16 oz. can. Black body with a big mocha head that settles quickly. Smells of coffee, malt syrup, some roast. Tastes of coffee, roasted malt, milk chocolate. Sharp coffee and malt flavor. Very acidic. Medium heavy, but the acidity prevents it from being rich. It's fine.