Virginia Black Bear - Coffee And Coconut
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery

 

 

Thanks Nick for the share on this one.

This one pours a pretty dark black, with a small head, and just a little bit of lacing.

Smells pretty aggressively hoppy and roasty, as is the norm with LCCB stouts. There's a wonderful toasted coconut character, though, toasty and slightly sweet, with rich roasty coffee as well.

The coconut/coffee additions help balance the aggressive bitter attack that the base beer provides. The base Black Bear is a delicious beer certainly, but this treatment definitely does it some favors. The toasted coconut adds some nice sweetness, it's certainly not a coconut bomb, but it's definitely there. The particular coffee used seems particularly roasty, which melds well into the super ashy and roasty base, but it does add a little bit of sweetness anyway.

This is medium bodied, a bit chewy, with a long and lingering bitter finish. The carbonation level is normal.

Lickinghole certainly knows how to make some really fine stouts. Those expecting a dessert coconut bomb will be disappointed, but it's still a really nice use of the added flavors.