All 5th Anniversary Everything - Coffee - Barrel-Aged
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

 

 

 

Pours a dark brown, with a soda-like, dark head that dissipates very quickly; likely due to the residual fats from the almonds. At beer fridge temp, the nose is all Amaretto. Tons of almond, anise and a touch of cinnamon. As it warms up, the cinnamon gets a bit stronger, but the almonds are still leading the way. May be getting a touch of vanilla, but I wouldn’t pick out that specific flavor if I didn’t know it was in there. Hard to tell if it’s the coffee or cacao nibs causing the bitter finish, but the 15% ABV is straight-up sharp going down. It’s a bit unbalanced, but the strongest flavors are still good.

Poured from a bottle into a festival glass taster

L: deep black/brown, small dark brown head that fades quickly. No lacing, nice legs abv expected with the abv

S: before looking at the label, got a ton of rich, dark chocolate and thought of raspberry-filled candy. Remember this being the coffee version from last year, wouldn't say I got a lot of that. After glancing at the label notice vanilla, and a bit of cinnamon. Wouldn't say I get much abv heat

T: the initial aroma from the nose dominated my first few sips (i.e. glasses), again thinking baking chocolate with rich raspberry notes. Found the finish to be nice and warming - at first thinking combination of barrel and abv. Post looking at the label definitely notice the cinnamon more, quite well done. Get the vanilla mid-sip, there but not distracting. A very warming beverage, again appropriate given abv

F: low carbonation, as expected. Not nearly as thick as I expected, in a good way. Sipping this less of a chore than it could be

O: going back and forth here. Without looking at the label by thinking was a rich, chocolatey stout with jammy raspberry notes. Picking up a bunch more after glancing at the adjuncts (vanilla, cinnamon - almonds still elusive, coffee maybe just part of the rich chocolate for me) but how I should let that impact my review/tasting somewhat undecided

 

 

 

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and really not much lacing.

This smells pretty fantastic, with rich and roasty coffee, spicy oak, maple/candy sweetness, sweet melted milk chocolate, and caramel.

Like everything OH does in the stout department, this is really, really sweet. Fortunately, the heavy duty and high quality dark coffee flavors hold the sugar deluge back a bit, and that little bit of oak does it too. I don't get a ton of actual bourbon, probably because they jammed so much pastry into this. There's a touch of almond, and a hint of vanilla, but I don't get much cinnamon. The base is super chocolatey, syrupy, and sweet, and very decadent.

This is thick, chewy, and syrupy, with basically booziness. All of these OH stouts are over 15%, and none of them feel all that boozy.

I never know with OH if I'm gonna get a sweet disaster or a sweet treat when it comes to their stouts. This was a treat, but of course it was sweet.