Big Bear Coffee
Tree House Brewing Company

16 oz can dated Winter 2026. Poured into a Sensorik goblet. Allowed to warm about 20 minutes after removing from the fridge. Looks great in the glass.

Looks black at a distance, but a dark brown when held to the light. There is a one inch light brown head that stays around a while. Very nice lacing left on the glass.

Dark roast malts on the nose, dark bread, coffee. Some cocoa notes in the background.

Tastes of dark roasted malts with dark roast coffee notes. Some nice bitter notes on the back end. Once and a while I caught some hop notes that remind me a bit of a black IPA.

Medium to full body. Flavors linger on the palate for a while.

Addition of coffee really elevates this brown ale.

 

16oz can dated 2026 edition.

Pours opaque dark brown with a half-inch head of tan. Moderate retention and lacing.
Big roasted coffee and dark chocolate in the nose.
Full bodied with an oily mouthfeel.
Espresso, bakers chocolate, brownie bits on the palate.
Finishes dry and extremely roasty.

 

 

 

Very dark pour; looks like a stout. The nose is predominantly coffee chocolate with some malt in the background. Only the lack of a roasty smell would indicate this isn't a stout. There are roasted notes in the taste but they're very obviously from the coffee, not the malt. Indeed, the coffee stays very much in the foreground throughout the taste. The malt is there, providing some sweetness, but the coffee and chocolate notes dominate. It's not a sweet beer by any means, which is a positive for me. Mouthfeel is soft and fluffy but not cloying. Aftertaste is pure coffee.

The prominence of the coffee over the beer was not what I was expecting but overall a nice after-dinner sipper.

Pours the deepest brown with a big fluffy tan head. Small bubbles leave a lot of lacing and the beer has good legs. Aroma is roasted malt with fruity coffee - the coffee used here must have had a good amount of citrus and zesty notes. The beer smells fantastic. Taste is just delightful - subtly sweet with a big malty, roasty base and a well-rounded fruitiness that includes a little light citrus as well as figs and cherries, mostly coming I think from the coffee and note from the hops in the beer.

This is fantastic. Drink it if you can.

It's so dark that it looks more like a stout than brown ale. The coffee notes are present, but more prominent than the coffee are the sweet notes of molasses and maple syrup. The body is quite hefty and the mouthfeel is sticky.

This is a deeply malty and very tasty variant of a base beer that I already love.

 

 

 

Poured from a 16-oz can simply stamped “WINTER 2024”. It was purchased cold at the Charlton location February 8th and kept cold. Poured to a diagonally cut tumbler at approximately 40 degrees F.
The pour stream is like a dark cola or rootbeer. Once in the glass it is opaque black. The tan head is at least half the low cut glass. The head fades in a while to a thin glass-hugging ring. A re-fill only brings a very brief 1/4 inch/ 6mm head. Lacing is minimal at the most.
The aroma is of sweetened rich coffee with some fruit esters mixed in.
The taste is right up my alley. Rich dark coffee, chocolate notes and unlike the aroma it is not all that sweet. Other than some alcohol warmth at the finish it really doesn’t drink like 8.8%.
The body is medium but there is a sticky lip sensation. The carbonation for some reason seems like significantly smaller bubbles than most beers.
This is maybe my new favorite Tree House malty dark beer. I loved it.

 

 

 

 

Canned Winter 2023. “Big, big bear, big bear, chase me“ stamped on the bottom of the can

Regular Bear to me was just a run of the mill Brown Ale. I haven’t gotten a chance to try Bear Coffee, but I’ve heard better things about this newer imperial version anyways. Let’s crack it open and see what it’s all about

Pours a very dark brown with 3 fingers of dark tan head that slowly fades to a thin cap and leaves decent lacing

Whatever coffee was used here must have been very fruit forward, as the nose throws a ton of fruit notes. I’m picking up on aromas of milk chocolate, drip coffee, fig jam, blueberry, sweet vanilla, brown bread, black cherry, and maple syrup

The coffee is more straightforward in taste and the fruit takes a bit of a backseat, but it’s still damn good. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting dark roast coffee, maple syrup, dark chocolate, burnt caramel, dark toast, raisin, sweet vanilla, brown sugar, and toffee. The swallow brings notes of drip coffee, dark chocolate, burnt caramel, molasses, dark cherry, earthy hops, smoke, brown sugar, and light maple syrup

A medium body pairs with gentle tingling carbonation, resulting in a slick and roasty beer. Finishes mostly dry with a firm bitterness

This is leagues better than OG Bear. It’s too bad the taste couldn’t quite keep up with the aroma, but I like it regardless

 

This is essentially a coffee stout under the "imperial brown ale" moniker. Having a coffee roastery in-house combined with their incredible cold brew extraction setup makes Tree House a force to reckon with when it comes to adding coffee to their beers. The coffee is both concentrated in flavor and nuanced in character. Quite solid, but probably best fresh

85/100