Smells Like Bean Spirit - Special Roast: Bowline Blend
Mikerphone Brewing

 

On tap.

Tan head. Black color.

Hershey’s syrup, bourbon, oak, roast, light char, cocoa, and a roasted coffee mixed in.

Decent, but nothing crazy standout for a coffee ba stout.

Look: Poured like black coffee with a head. Foam was tan/sandy in color but vanished by the time I got signed on the computer to do this review. NO foam fingers on the sides of the glass. In fact, none to be found since its birth.
Smell and Taste: Coffee and maple, or is it maple and coffee? Either way are the dominate notes. Very sweet up front with some lingering bitterness from the coffee.
Feel: To flat for my liking.
Overall: Not bad but I would say not great either.

 

 

 

From the 12 oz can in a snifter via Bluejacket74----Cheers Dude!
This solid little brew pours a rich coal black with a nice head of
light brown foam that settles to a thick ring, thin dusty layer, and
sports some nice lacing. Nose of dark coffee, char, dark cocoa,
and rich maple. Flavors surpass the nose with aplomb. Dark
chocolate mingles and makes merry with espresso, rich maple,
and subtle cream mingling with deep roast and char. Nice mouth
feel; full body, smooth, rich, coating, slick, light carbonation, and a
sweet char and coffee accentuated finish.

Overall, a fantastic brew!

Cheers

Really like the imperial version, so was excited to see a regular stout incarnation. Typical jet black body with a brown cap. Smell has the earthy coffee front and center, with maple, chocolate, a kiss of vanilla and leather, very aromatic. Taste is more streamlined, coffee is the huge star with shots of maple and chocolate along now with earth interceding. Feel is sticky, thick for a regular stout, percolated from the coffee, and sneaky bright on the finish for the style. Beer, it's what's for breakfast on a cool day!

 

12 ounce can, canned on 08/18/20. Served in a snifter, the beer pours dark brown/black with about an inch tan head. Head retention is pretty good, and there's a decent amount of lacing. Aroma is nice and sweet, the brew smells mostly like maple syrup, along with some coffee, roasted malt, chocolate and nuts. The taste is similar to the aroma but not quite as sweet. In addition to the maple, coffee, roasted malt, chocolate and nuts, there's also some burnt/charred flavors too. I do think the maple is dominant in both the aroma and taste. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's coating and a bit creamy with a moderate amount of carbonation. I thought this was a good dessert/breakfast stout, definitely worth picking up!

 

12 fl oz pull-tab can served into a shaker pint:

"Stout ale with coffee and maple syrup." 8% ABV. Canned 08/18/20. $4.49 USD per can at a beer store in New Orleans, LA.

Head is dreadfully thin and disappears within 30 seconds...this is the opposite of what you want in a stout head. Body is predictably an opaque black. Overall appearance is poor owing almost entirely to the appalling lack of head thickness, strength, and retention.

Even through my hyposmia, the aroma jumps out at me upon pouring. Rich maple syrup is unmistakable and feels genuine. Dark malt sweetness. Chocolate malt. Some roast, sure, but no truly overt coffee aromatics. I don't get any coffee bitterness, earthiness, or java-like robust roasted bean notes. Aroma suggests a sweet but likable stout dominated by maple syrup flavour.

Syrupy in texture as well as taste, but the syrup sweetness is sort of balanced by a blip of roasted barley bitterness on the back end. It doesn't throw out a lot of coffee flavour, honestly, but it could really use some to help temper that syrupy sweetness further. Smooth, thick, wet, a bit stale in mouthfeel...certainly unrefreshing (which is expected in the style, but this is worse than usual in that respect). Thick and viscous. The maple syrup is nice and it's vivid, but the absence of perceptible coffee, rich roasted barley, or any of the other basic coffee stout flavours I'd hope for in a good expression of the style really holds it back.

I was surprised by the lack of overt coffee flavour given the extent to which they tried to market the coffee on the label. It's not a bad coffee stout, but it leaves a hell of a lot to be desired at the appallingly high price of ~$5 a can. Old Rasputin Costs $7.99 a 4 pack here, and Founders' Breakfast Stout isn't much more than that...I'd definitely never buy this again and the atrocious pricing turns me off entirely to the brewery behind it. What an abysmal value....hell, if we're comparing maple syrup stouts, a 750ml bottle of CBS runs $9.99 at the same store I nabbed this at.

C / AVERAGE

Very sweet on the maple end, I think the coffee is so lacking of bitterness that the maple becomes a touch sweeter than I'd prefer. Still an enjoyable beer that smells great - just like the regular roast better from memory.

 

When I saw this I had to pick it up. Can't go wrong with the SLBS series.
A: Pours a pretty much pitch black with a tan head that dissipated relatively fast.
A: strong roasted coffee predominantly , along with a bit of alcohol heat, chocolate and nutty sweetness.
T: Follows the nose with a very pronounced almost maple like sweetness. Sticky sweet.
F: Lingers with coffee, chocolate and roasted notes. Nice and smooth at 8%. Drinks easier than that.
O: This is another really good beer from Mikerphone which is no surprise and makes me want to try more from them.

Aroma is first coffee and ten progresses into very nutty coffee. The flavor is coffee, chocolate, dark/roasted malts and a long and nutty/warming alcoholic finish.

 

 

09/05/20 can @ home