Double Shot - Peru Estrella Divina
Tree House Brewing Company

 

Pours with a bubbly, foamy head that is more dense in the middle and looks like a root beer float around the edges. Aroma is coffee and sweet chocolate. Taste completely follows the nose, with coffee standing out immediately, followed by the chocolate notes, particularly on the finish. Feel is a bit thin. Overall, good beer.

 

24 August 2020 - Beer #169

Price: $8.05 at the brewery

Appearance: 4 - pretty black with a dark brown head that fizzled away like soda. Sorta thin and reddish at the edges.

Nose: 4 - can't believe there's no lactose on here. Faint coffee, plenty of roast. Smells milky!

Taste: 4 - THERE's the coffee. And tasty coffee it is, too. That's it; it's a coffee stout.

Mouth: 5 - this keeps rolling around at the back of my throat and tongue. Thicker than the pour. Lots of action here.

Overall: 4 - an excellent, no-frills coffee stout. A superb example of the style.

Cheers!

Sampling a cellar temp 16 oz can picked up at the brewery 2 months ago. The beer pours a dark cola brown color with a fizzy tan head that foams up abut 1 cm and fades rapidly to only the thinnest of edge layers that is almost non-existent.
The aroma on this beer is roasted malt, roasted malt and some coffee grounds. the roast is almost to the point of char. No hop character shows through, and the ABV is hidden too.
First sip reveals a medium body with smooth texture and very fine tingly carbonation. Pretty easy drinking and physically enjoyable brew.
Very malt forward but not really sweet, lots of roasted note and coffee grounds, maybe a little chocolate note comes through towards the swallow, but then a lingering roast flavor hangs on after each mouthful. I also do get a sticky coating on my lips each time I take a sip of this beer. this coating is also kind of sweet when I lick my lips.
the beer is very drinkable and the ABV is totally hidden.
I enjoy this stout from TH and find it to be a great double shot variant, glad to have had the chance to try it!

 

Huge thanks to Alan for this one, and plenty of other long time wants. This is one of those beers you just have to try at least once, so here I go!

Pint can - dated 01/14/20 - poured into a tumbler at 50°F.

Pours a gleaming jet black - no head, until a two finger coffee bean-coloured head races up, before racing right back down to a still top, looking like tar in the glass. Like nothing I've ever seen. I'll give a 5 to that.

Nose: Black coffee. Some roasty nuance, such as a hint of caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, and even a hint of dark fruit and red wine, but this is essentially sweet coffee.

Palate: Much like the nose, this is an absolute coffee bomb. It opens up quite sweet, with lots of cocoa from the roast, which lends its own coffee character as well. Moderate roast, accentuated by the coffee, but the hearty sweetness wins over. Secondary notes of vanilla, caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and unfortunately, lactose. I knew there was something unpleasant about this - there's clearly lactose in it. The lactose lends this quick spike of this almost aspartame/artificial sweetener flavour just before the finish, where it also extinguishes any sort of roast that may have been. Luckily, there's enough coffee for the more roasty notes of the bean to come through in the finish, which helps to dry it out.

Mouthfeel/Body: The beer is full-bodied, and has a slick, oily feel to it. In addition to the naturally full body, the lactose definitely adds,some viscosity here, as does the sheer level of sweetness. Major stickiness is left clinging to the lips with this one. Effervescence is actually quite adequate - lower, but very fine and fizzy.

Overall: All the components of a great coffee stout are here. The beans themself are clearly primo quality, with zero green pepper or stale notes, the base stout is well-crafted, but - it's too sweet, and there's just too much lactose. In fact, if there weren't any lactose, i think it could pull off the sweetness just fine, but with both elements in place, it does become a bit cloying. I do not think the lactose benefits this beer in any way whatsoever. You can easily get that chewy feel without milk sugar, and it ends up tasting more natural. It's still good, it's still drinkable, but I'd either like to see this tamed by a bourbon barrel, or just lose the lactose all together.

 

 

Pours black with a finger of deep caramel-colored head that is more fizz than foam. It bubbles away rather quickly. Aroma is resolute - with roasty, toasty, caramely malts forming a firm and secure base for lactose and coffee. It's coffee with a splash of milk. Coffee is roasty with a little fleshy fruit to it. Flavor profile is roasty, toasty, caramely and nutty malts with a rich and deep complexity. Together, the malts support roasty coffee and a squeeze of lactose sugar, adding a splash of milk to the coffee. Coffee is medium in roast with a very mild fruity fleshy quality that tightens the jaw - it's a delight. Mouth feel is creamy with a medium-thick consistency. Thinking something along the lines of a well made latte. Overall, full of supportive and expressive malts with a focus and hearty layer of coffee and lactose setting this coffee milk stout up for success.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 16oz can.

 

A: Poured from the can into a tulip glass this quarantined St. Patrick's Day. . . . Body is black, with a burnt-caramel edge on the pour. There's a brownish-coppery one-finger head on top.

S: Not a terribly strong nose at all - mainly coffee, maybe some molasses or brown sugar providing some sweetness.

T: Follows the nose, with a caramel malt, brown sugar and molasses foundation that's followed by coffee. Loads of coffee. Also a touch of dark, dried fruit (prunes, figs) and modest roasted coffee beans. That nearly-9% ABV is not noted at all.

M: Slick in feel - no real carbonation at all.

O: Solid stuff. Not blowing me away, but it's good.

Pours very dark brown, kostly opaque with a latte color silky head. The aroma is rich with coffee and chocolate notes. The taste is pungent and rich with lightly sweet coffee and chocolate malt. It coats the tongue nicely. Feel.is super smooth and creamy, very low bitterness and no alcohol burn.

This is just superbly delicious and feels great. Love it and would look for it to buy any time.

 

 

 

 

 

Consumed 3/1/20

Pours black with a small amount of beige head, retains a small collar
Rich espresso, coffee beans, an excessive amount of white sugar, some brown sugar, caramel, molasses, roasted grains, char, dark fruits, hint of booze
Smooth, oily, low carbonation

I love coffee, I love coffee stouts, and I love Tree House. But apparently I do not love the Double Shot family of stouts. The Vanilla Bean variant was too sweet, and the Vanilla Bean Marshmallow variant was so unpleasant to my tongue that I dumped half of it. This non-adjunct version is still way too sweet, but over the course of two hours (!) I went from strongly disliking it to finding it somewhat charming. But I won't be buying it again.