Ellen's Coffee Stout
Atlantic Brewing Company - Town Hill / Mainely Meat BBQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The appearance is a dark brown colored body almost close to black with a two finger white to almost off-white foamy head that dies at a nice pace leaving a decent amount of foamy lacing in its wake. The smell is a fair amount of espresso coffee beans up front dosed with some nice light vanilla creaminess that comes through slightly roasty. The taste is mainly sweet and roasty but an underlying gentle bitterness adds into the flavoring from the espresso. The aftertaste has a sweet roasty espresso and slightly vanilla with a quick dry finish. The palate is about at a medium with a slight sessionable quality to it. Carbonation runs really smooth as it rolls over my mouth and tongue. Overall, I say this is a pretty good milk/sweet stout with a nice added coffee flavoring to add to its complexity.

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 oz brown bottle into a clear glass tulip. Smudged best by date on bottle neck.

A: Very dark brown with solid 1-2 finger beige big-bubbled head with decent retention and a stripe of lacing around the top.

S: Aroma is of black coffee, vanilla, and light boozy stout aromas of prune, caramel, and roast

T: Flavor is disappointing with a strong chemical vanilla flavor, stale black coffee, and very little stout character. Caramel sweetness is too much and doesn't mix well with the weird artificial vanilla flavor.

M: Thin and lifeless with too light body and too high carbonation. Even letting it sit for 10-15 minutes didn't help the carbonation dissipate much.

O: I was really looking forward to this after the other Atlantic beers were pretty good. This one was off the mark in several areas and a disappointment. I wonder if it was a victim of the grocery store environment - I would have bought it from their gift shop but they closed at 6pm so just missed them while picking up BBQ.

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Maine-ly Meat in Bar Harbor, ME.

This one pours a very dark brown, nearly black, with a white head, and a little bit of lacing.

Smells like roasty coffee, bitter dark chocolate, barley malt, and a little bit of lactose.

This is a solid straightforward coffee milk stout that hits all of the expected flavor points. Roasty coffee and black roasted malt, dark chocolate and sweet creamy lactose. It's nice.

This is creamy and soft tasting, with a good level of carbonation.

A solid no frills coffee stout that hit all he right notes for me.