Moonblast
Burlington Beer Co.

 

 

 

16 oz. can.
Moderate pour yields a big, one inch (plus) tan head; gone in seconds!?! Reason: lactose. Once again BBCo.'s overuse of milk sugar claims another victim. Fairly nice nose of chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of chocolate chip cookie dough. Taste mirrors nose, but the mouthfeel, I say the Mouth Feel, is severely lacking due to the aforementioned BBCo. overuse of an adjunct that most of you should know by now, I detest the overuse of.
Cheers?

Poured into a tulip.
The appearance was a nice looking dark brown color in the pour but leaned closer to black in the glass when held up to the light. Swiftly gliding off foamy head that didn't really leave much lacing.
The aroma had a nice blend of toasty coffee and chocolate tones, somewhat milk chocolate but with a slight of dark chocolate. Touch of wafer/cookie and a light dose of vanilla.
The flavor was mostly sweet but through a wonderful blend of various additions of cookie/wafer to milk and dark chocolate, light roasty coffee tones and some vanilla. Quick aftertaste of milk chocolate and cookie/wafer character.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair sipping quality about it. Good carbonation and ABV. Smooth finish of chocolate and cookie/wafer/vanilla.
Overall, pretty nice imperial stout well worthy of coming back to. Makes for a wonderful February Sunday evening dessert.

 

Pours a pitch black color with a thin brown head into my glass. Cocoa liquor, cream and a touch of biscuit. Velvet-y cocoa and cream on the tongue that gives way to a milky sweet finish. The only thing I'd change would be to add a homemade chocolate chip cookie to dunk.

This is my second stout from Burlington Beer Co. Though I very much enjoy their rotating oatmeal stout offering Folk Metal, this is kind of a different beast... an 8% stout with chocolate chip cookies and milk sugar added. Here goes nothing!

Pours kind of terrifying initially, with a deep, inky black pour topped off with a fluffy and ominous head of dark foam. After only a few seconds, however, that head dissipates entirely, leaving absolutely nothing behind. No lace, no bubbles... nothing. Wow, that's disappointing. I was really intimidated right upfront, but it just peters out. Hm. That's not a great sign.

The nose gives me an initial impression of Russian Imperial Stout, not quite the Americanized beer I thought I'd get. Strong dark fruit and minor roast presence with an oily ethanol element right upfront. It's a bit stronger smelling than 8%, even. I'm not really impressed by this right off the bat, not gonna lie. It just doesn't seem to sell itself correctly based on what the can says, and that pour was really not the right way to start anyway. I suppose I can pick up a bit of dark chocolate if I try to find it, but this really isn't special and doesn't give off a "milk and cookies" vibe whatsoever.

On the tongue, this is a bit more ashy than expected, with roasted malts conveying a nice crusty cookie-like feel right upfront. I'm still getting too much in the way of dark fruit, though. This element is very distracting when I'm trying to pick out the more deftly-balanced malt flavors. It's just a little too estery and not definitive enough, perhaps. I would probably prefer a drier beer with a little more of a hop note even, as this seems unbalanced. The weirdest thing, I think, is that I don't get even a hint of lactose in this one. I really expected it to have a lush, smooth mouthfeel, but even that aspect feels pretty much entirely-off. It's got a prickly mid-palate and a rather flat and boring finish. Once again, ripe red fruits dominate said finish, and I don't even get much in the way of chocolate on the tongue.

This probably should be taken back to the drawing board. I don't think it's a bad beer, but it's not what was promised on the can, and I think perhaps the brewers' reach exceeded their grasp in this case. Too bad, because I've really enjoyed a lot of BBCo beers. Will definitely revisit this one in the future if it changes in recipe, because I think it has potential to be great if some big things are shifted.