Black is Beautiful
Pontoon Brewing Company

2021 Pontoon’s version of Black Is Beautiful…Gold Medal winner.

Honestly, kind of under-whelming to me. It has a powerful nose about a foot from the can. The flavor profile of cocoa, coffe, and vanilla is just muddled. There’s a crisp bite up front from the hops, that morphs into a dark malt foundation that just doesn’t seem to develop. Mouthfeel is medium, with a good amount of carbonation once disturbed.

It’s at cellar temp, so there’s not a lot more temp impact expected.

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque black in the glass with a one finger dark khaki head with great retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, coffee, cocoa and vanilla. Flavor is dark toasted malt with moderate char, drip coffee, light cocoa and vanilla. Charry malt and coffee finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Always glad to find another version of this great series. Pontoon's is the second coffee version I've had and is more coffee forward. The great BiB base stout supports the coffee flavors well. I think a little more balance between the vanilla and coffee would improve this bit, but still a flavorful and rich coffee stout. Enjoyable.

Ingredients include coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and graham crackers, it is meant to evoke tiramisu. I would say this is subtle but very effective.

No one element stands out, I would say the chocolate and vanilla are slightly less subtle than the coffee and graham cracker. They all come together to create the desired goal, nicely done!

 

 

 

Rich coffee, roasted malt, chocolate with warming. Very smooth MF.Excellent imperial stout.