Lakewood French Quarter Temptress | Lakewood Brewing Company
Brewed by:
Lakewood Brewing Company
Texas, United States
lakewoodbrewingcompany.com
Style: Milk / Sweet Stout
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 9.10%
Availability: Rotating
Notes / Commercial Description:
No notes at this time.
Added by wogreen on 08-03-2013
HISTOGRAM
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Ratings: 195 | Reviews: 35
4.33/5 rDev +0.5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25
4.25/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.3/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.26/5 rDev -1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
This one pours a dark and glossy looking black, with a small foamy head, and not much lacing.
This smells pretty great- with a rich and caramelly coffee character, vanilla, lactose, bitter chicory root, milk chocolate, and light roast.
This is pretty sweet/pastry-like, but it's still a super tasty beer. The coffee flavor is so rich and nice- contributing a melange of coffee/caramel/hazelnut flavors. There's also some vanilla cake flavors, a bit of roasted malt, and a sweet chocolate finish.
This is medium bodied, but very, very creamy, with a soft level of carbonation and a high level of drinkability.
I haven't had the base Temptress to compare to this, but on it's own, it's a very decadent take on a coffee stout.
727 characters
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
This one pours a dark and glossy looking black, with a small foamy head, and not much lacing.
This smells pretty great- with a rich and caramelly coffee character, vanilla, lactose, bitter chicory root, milk chocolate, and light roast.
This is pretty sweet/pastry-like, but it's still a super tasty beer. The coffee flavor is so rich and nice- contributing a melange of coffee/caramel/hazelnut flavors. There's also some vanilla cake flavors, a bit of roasted malt, and a sweet chocolate finish.
This is medium bodied, but very, very creamy, with a soft level of carbonation and a high level of drinkability.
I haven't had the base Temptress to compare to this, but on it's own, it's a very decadent take on a coffee stout.
727 characters
4.42/5 rDev +2.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
4.21/5 rDev -2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
3.38/5 rDev -21.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Currently #17 in the Top Texas Beers List. I adored regular Temptress but wasn't so keen on the Mole and Sin Mint variants, so this'll be interesting.
BOTTLE: 01.17.18. Cost is $14.99-15.99 per 4 pack in Austin, TX. Brown glass 12 fl oz format with a branded black pry-off crown cap.
"Imperial milk stout." "Ale brewed with lactose sugar and vanilla with bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans and chicory." Brewed with "a unique blend of freshly-roasted, bourbon barrel-aged Peruvian Cajamarca coffee beans and a touch of chicory." 9.1% ABV. 1.091 OG. 56 IBU. 33 SRM.
Served chilled into a tulip.
HEAD: ~7cm in height. Khaki-tan colour. Robust enough for a 9.1% ABV ale, with adequate thickness and frothiness. Could be darker, richer, and softer, with a more gilded shining complexion. Doesn't evoke a dessert stout. Leaves light lacing as it recedes. Head retention is nice for the ABV - ~5 minutes.
BODY: Predictably, it's an opaque black. No yeast/lees are visible within. Opacity makes it impossible to determine if it's filtered or not.
Appears well-carbonated. Not unique or special for an imperial stout or milk stout, but it's generally enticing.
AROMA: Coffee is evident, hitting on notes of earthy java instead of going in a roasty or harshly bitter direction. Chicory coffee substitute gets lost in the mix. I don't find any genuine vanilla bean, but vanillin is possible. The lactose sugar sweetness in this seems to mute the other notes; I'd be curious to see what this aroma was like if the beer was simply an imperial stout. I find no bourbon barrel character whatsoever, and I have to wonder if bourbon barrel aged coffee beans are a marketing gimmick inherently.
Wants for roastiness (from roasted barley/carafa), more pungently bitter coffee, or possibly another bitterness-contributing ingredient like burnt malt.
As-is, the coffee aroma is the most appealing aspect of it but the coffee lacks unique attributes, roastiness, and depth.
Aromatic intensity is quite restrained for an imperial (milk) stout. This aroma suggests a pleasant and enjoyable imperial milk stout and I have to commend it for not letting its additives eclipse the base beer.
TASTE & TEXTURE: Definitely on the sweet side...a dessert beer to be sure, but not a cloying one; I feel like I'll be able to sip the whole 12oz without it feeling like a chore to drink. Still, it's quite full-bodied, thick, and heavy on the palate from all that unfermented lactose sugar and it really needs more bitterness.
The coffee lacks boldness and depth; all I get is some weak earthy java that doesn't stand out.
Let's run through the beer's additives: Vanilla? Not getting it, but maybe there's a blip of artificial vanillin. Bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans? I mentioned above I get some mild coffee, but there's no bitterness there and no bourbon barrel aged characteristics are imparted by it whatsoever. Chicory? Not finding it, but then it's a coffee substitute inserted in a coffee beer, so why would I? One can imagine with genuine Madagascar vanilla bean, aging the whole beer in bourbon barrels (instead of just using bourbon barrel aged coffee beans so they can slap "bourbon barrel aged" somewhere on the label), and higher quantities of single origin coffee with more pungent bold bitter flavours, this could be a much bigger success.
Roasted barley is sorely absent. More bitterness is needed to counter all that milk sugar and bring this beer more complexity and better balance.
It does have a nice silky softness to its mouthfeel that I dig. Smooth and wet, which makes it approachable. Putting this on nitro would be a bad idea; I'm glad they went with standard carbonation.
I guess what shocks me the most is how shallow it is; there's hardly any depth of flavour at all and each constituent note lacks the expressiveness I want in a great imperial stout.
OVERALL: For all its marketable additives, this beer isn't any better than the original Temptress and it fails to evoke the New Orleans coffee flavour profile Lakewood is obviously after. That said, when you've got a base milk stout as competent as Temptress, it's hard to go wrong even if all you bring to it is a gentle coffee presence. This had potential for greatness, but all it really amounts to is a slightly different variant of Temptress - which is to say it's still a hell of a solid milk stout that rivals Left Hand's canonical expression of the style. I doubt I'll buy it again seeing as Left Hand's milk stout costs a hell of a lot less ($10 per sixer is a fair bit better than $15 per 4 pack), but it's well worth trying for diehard fans of the milk stout style and I'll enjoy the 4 pack I have.
I wouldn't count it amongst the Top 20 beers currently brewed in Texas, but it's easily one of the best milk stouts in the state.
B- (3.38) / WORTHY
4,825 characters
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Currently #17 in the Top Texas Beers List. I adored regular Temptress but wasn't so keen on the Mole and Sin Mint variants, so this'll be interesting.
BOTTLE: 01.17.18. Cost is $14.99-15.99 per 4 pack in Austin, TX. Brown glass 12 fl oz format with a branded black pry-off crown cap.
"Imperial milk stout." "Ale brewed with lactose sugar and vanilla with bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans and chicory." Brewed with "a unique blend of freshly-roasted, bourbon barrel-aged Peruvian Cajamarca coffee beans and a touch of chicory." 9.1% ABV. 1.091 OG. 56 IBU. 33 SRM.
Served chilled into a tulip.
HEAD: ~7cm in height. Khaki-tan colour. Robust enough for a 9.1% ABV ale, with adequate thickness and frothiness. Could be darker, richer, and softer, with a more gilded shining complexion. Doesn't evoke a dessert stout. Leaves light lacing as it recedes. Head retention is nice for the ABV - ~5 minutes.
BODY: Predictably, it's an opaque black. No yeast/lees are visible within. Opacity makes it impossible to determine if it's filtered or not.
Appears well-carbonated. Not unique or special for an imperial stout or milk stout, but it's generally enticing.
AROMA: Coffee is evident, hitting on notes of earthy java instead of going in a roasty or harshly bitter direction. Chicory coffee substitute gets lost in the mix. I don't find any genuine vanilla bean, but vanillin is possible. The lactose sugar sweetness in this seems to mute the other notes; I'd be curious to see what this aroma was like if the beer was simply an imperial stout. I find no bourbon barrel character whatsoever, and I have to wonder if bourbon barrel aged coffee beans are a marketing gimmick inherently.
Wants for roastiness (from roasted barley/carafa), more pungently bitter coffee, or possibly another bitterness-contributing ingredient like burnt malt.
As-is, the coffee aroma is the most appealing aspect of it but the coffee lacks unique attributes, roastiness, and depth.
Aromatic intensity is quite restrained for an imperial (milk) stout. This aroma suggests a pleasant and enjoyable imperial milk stout and I have to commend it for not letting its additives eclipse the base beer.
TASTE & TEXTURE: Definitely on the sweet side...a dessert beer to be sure, but not a cloying one; I feel like I'll be able to sip the whole 12oz without it feeling like a chore to drink. Still, it's quite full-bodied, thick, and heavy on the palate from all that unfermented lactose sugar and it really needs more bitterness.
The coffee lacks boldness and depth; all I get is some weak earthy java that doesn't stand out.
Let's run through the beer's additives: Vanilla? Not getting it, but maybe there's a blip of artificial vanillin. Bourbon barrel-aged coffee beans? I mentioned above I get some mild coffee, but there's no bitterness there and no bourbon barrel aged characteristics are imparted by it whatsoever. Chicory? Not finding it, but then it's a coffee substitute inserted in a coffee beer, so why would I? One can imagine with genuine Madagascar vanilla bean, aging the whole beer in bourbon barrels (instead of just using bourbon barrel aged coffee beans so they can slap "bourbon barrel aged" somewhere on the label), and higher quantities of single origin coffee with more pungent bold bitter flavours, this could be a much bigger success.
Roasted barley is sorely absent. More bitterness is needed to counter all that milk sugar and bring this beer more complexity and better balance.
It does have a nice silky softness to its mouthfeel that I dig. Smooth and wet, which makes it approachable. Putting this on nitro would be a bad idea; I'm glad they went with standard carbonation.
I guess what shocks me the most is how shallow it is; there's hardly any depth of flavour at all and each constituent note lacks the expressiveness I want in a great imperial stout.
OVERALL: For all its marketable additives, this beer isn't any better than the original Temptress and it fails to evoke the New Orleans coffee flavour profile Lakewood is obviously after. That said, when you've got a base milk stout as competent as Temptress, it's hard to go wrong even if all you bring to it is a gentle coffee presence. This had potential for greatness, but all it really amounts to is a slightly different variant of Temptress - which is to say it's still a hell of a solid milk stout that rivals Left Hand's canonical expression of the style. I doubt I'll buy it again seeing as Left Hand's milk stout costs a hell of a lot less ($10 per sixer is a fair bit better than $15 per 4 pack), but it's well worth trying for diehard fans of the milk stout style and I'll enjoy the 4 pack I have.
I wouldn't count it amongst the Top 20 beers currently brewed in Texas, but it's easily one of the best milk stouts in the state.
B- (3.38) / WORTHY
4,825 characters
4.25/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Fairly thick dark pour, low tan head ring.
Smells roasty of coffee with pepper-like chillie spice.
Taste follows with the same, but the sweetness and lactose balance out the roasted coffee notes nicely, and the vanilla flavor creeps also through.
Feels medium-bodied and medium carbonated, with a very smooth finish even while prickly dots of heat poke my tongue.
Surprised how much I like this.
398 characters
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Fairly thick dark pour, low tan head ring.
Smells roasty of coffee with pepper-like chillie spice.
Taste follows with the same, but the sweetness and lactose balance out the roasted coffee notes nicely, and the vanilla flavor creeps also through.
Feels medium-bodied and medium carbonated, with a very smooth finish even while prickly dots of heat poke my tongue.
Surprised how much I like this.
398 characters
3.85/5 rDev -10.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
4.27/5 rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.18/5 rDev -3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.25/5 rDev -1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
4.23/5 rDev -1.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
I really like the base beer, and I absolutely LOVE the mole iteration, so I was excited to try this. Look is the same as the others, the nose is big coffee and some bourbon, no discernible vanilla.
The taste is very rich, with coffee dominating again (which it is wont to do in my experience). Doesn't have the creamy feel I enjoyed so much in the base beer, but this is still very enjoyable.
395 characters
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
I really like the base beer, and I absolutely LOVE the mole iteration, so I was excited to try this. Look is the same as the others, the nose is big coffee and some bourbon, no discernible vanilla.
The taste is very rich, with coffee dominating again (which it is wont to do in my experience). Doesn't have the creamy feel I enjoyed so much in the base beer, but this is still very enjoyable.
395 characters
5/5 rDev +16%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
Oh, the smell, it's like candy. And the taste is like an overloaded pot of Jamaican Blue Mountain that someone depth charged with SoCo. Out of this world.
154 characters
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
Oh, the smell, it's like candy. And the taste is like an overloaded pot of Jamaican Blue Mountain that someone depth charged with SoCo. Out of this world.
154 characters
4.19/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
3.41/5 rDev -20.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Pours like all the other Temptress types, dense with nice head. Pungent vegetal nose of chicory. Light coffee notes. Taste largely follows the overpowering bouquet...vegetal, herbaceous. I'm not a huge fan and it is hard to separate the judge from the personal taste. I'm out.
281 characters
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Pours like all the other Temptress types, dense with nice head. Pungent vegetal nose of chicory. Light coffee notes. Taste largely follows the overpowering bouquet...vegetal, herbaceous. I'm not a huge fan and it is hard to separate the judge from the personal taste. I'm out.
281 characters
4.53/5 rDev +5.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.75
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.75
4/5 rDev -7.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
03/25/2017
10 characters
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
03/25/2017
10 characters
4.19/5 rDev -2.8%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
3.25/5 rDev -24.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
Lakewood French Quarter Temptress from Lakewood Brewing Company
Beer rating:
4.31 out of
5 with
195 ratings
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