Imperial Coffee Stout
Machine House Brewery

Poured from 500mL bottle into a dimpled mug.

Appearance: rich dark brown hue, nearly black, with no light let through except a little bit of brown around the edges. Head is a finger of compact, creamy tan foam. Beauty, eh!

Smell: sweet and slightly roasty malt aroma with a healthy dose of coffee. There's a little bit of a vegetal character that sometimes comes through in coffee stouts, but I'm not really complaining.

Taste: malt is sweetish with lots of coffee. There's kind of an acidity here that, white I guess is thematic for the coffee, doesn't quite work for me. It's not terrible, but it does detract from an otherwise enjoyable coffee treat.

Mouthfeel: medium-rich body with a good level of carbonation and a good creaminess.

Overall: a decent enough stout, but I think the coffee is a bit misplaced, at least in the flavor department.

 

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a thin khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, coffee and a hint of cocoa. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light biscuit, coffee and light bakers chocolate; coffee finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Here's a style of coffee stout I don't remember trying before, very British Isles stout. The base resembles a dry English stout, which is rather what I anticipated from Machine House. The coffee is quite forward and authentic tasting. The balance is better than I expected as I usually want a substantial malt component to support coffee in my beer (light malts don't work for my taste). Not that complex, but flavorful and enjoyable. Hope this was decaffeinated coffee or I'll be up all night.