Coffee Shop Vibes - Sump True Level Medium Roast (Colombia)
Side Project Brewing

Pours black with two and a half fingers of hearty mocha colored foam. Aroma is deep roasty and toasty malts with some mild caramel in the mix. Coffee hits with a medium roast, and at a medium volume, but establishes itself as a centerpiece until the end. Mild green bell pepper picks up towards the end. Flavor profile is carried to the same tune, with roasty and toasty malts forming a firm base. Despite the darkness, it's not overly bitter. Things are further smoothed out by medium roast coffee with a soft chocolately quality. Mild green bell pepper resides on the outside, but the storyline remains centered on coffee. Mouth feel is thick with a lightly creamy texture. It really sits quite still, without a lot of additional play or nuance to the texture. Overall, a heavy, robust stout with wonderful depth that focuses on coffee flavors. For those seeking a meal-like stout, and/or coffee flavors in their beer, this is a sublime option.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 750mL bottle.

 

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a short dark tan head that quickly died down, leaving just a narrow ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of dark malts are present in the nose along with notes of coffee.
T: The taste follows the smell and has stronger flavors of coffee beans.
M: It feels medium- to full-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This stout has lots of aromas and flavors of coffee beans. It also hides its alcohol very well.

Serving type: bottle

 

Medium shimmering black body with a brown cap that slowly fades into a collar with surface clouds in the coffee beer. Earthy and chocolaty coffee beans fill the nose with touches of vanilla, char, and caramel and dark malts. Taste like the smell is a cut above most coffee stouts in how much depth the coffee and roast has without more bitterness than the initial burst up front, dark chocolate, mild earth and toned vanilla carry home with a kiss of caramel on the end. Feel is the star though, velvet smooth, pillowy for style, while not sacrificing any weight or depth. Honestly a barrel would probably detract from this simple yet refined beauty

 

The glossy black body has a slow to build head that grows rather tall of dark tan foam, becoming puffy and almost convex, slowly settling to a thin but fluffy blanket that darkens even further to a mocha color, dispersing to a curled ring.

Roasty, savory malt meets an almost earthy sort of African coffee bean funk that goes on for days. It's like cashew with a faint hint of bleu cheese, but not in a bad way--yet it's there. Second whiff is like mocha ice cream, but taste is vanilla liqueur--it's got a sharp little sting, but some softening hazelnut wafer.

The medium body thickens a little with the mildly soft carbonation, finishing semi-sticky, exhaling a hint of chocolate covered strawberry. Over time, the roast even becomes a little smoky, making this undoubtedly the roastiest stout I've had by Shared.

 

 

 

 

Best coffee shop vibes since the original. Very much like a cold brewed coffee. Solid mouth feel as all of sp/shared stouts

 

Always look forward to an STL brewery collaborating with Sump Coffee.

Pours with the viscosity you come to expect from SP / Shared. Head retention is almost zero when poured at 50°. What does froth up is sienna brown in color, and is quick to settle back into the black abyss that is this beer.

When you uncap this bottle, you're greeted with an overabundance of roasted coffee beans and chocolate. Once poured in the glass, however, you really get a deeper complexity from this Colombian coffee bean. Much more caramel and a transformation of the chocolate from a richer fudge to a more bitter, intimidating baker's chocolate. As it continues to warm you get a touch of fruit, but finishes all the way with that familiar morning coffee aroma.

When initially sipping, I'll admit that the roasty bitterness was a bit abrasive. It subsided rather quickly, though, and I realized how crucial it was to let this one warm up even further. The bitterness subdues, and is replaced with predominant notes of baking chocolate, Werther's caramel candies, and a touch of black cherries on the tail to compliment any residual bitterness.

Viscosity / Mouthfeel on this was excellent. Thick, but not chewy. Carbonation present, but soft and not in any way abrasive. There's a bit of that 13% booze that comes through on the tail, but no way you'd guess the ABV being at that gravity without double checking the label. Good stick from the residual, coating the mouth and lips and definitely favoring the rim of the glass on each sip.