Lateralus - Cacao/Coconut
Lupulin Brewing

 

 

 

 

Poured a black body with decent off-white head and lace patches down the glass. Mild aroma, not overpowering, with a touch of everything ranging from chocolate, coconut and even lactic notes (something like coconut milk). Well-hidden booze in a light to medium body, lighter than expected, and this beer continues the lactic thing I'm stuck on as it is silky smooth. Chocolate and coconut/coconut milk like sweetness with hint of vanilla blend together and they blend well yet aren't cloying. Beer finishes easy and is a dangerous sipper b/c it's so easy to drink.

This beer pours a deep motor oil black with a good sized mocha head. The aroma is rich and sweet with lots of chocolate and marshmallow, with hints of molasses and barley syrup. The flavor is definitely dessert oriented, with loads of marshmallow, chocolate, molasses, and a balancing level of umami that does not quite approach soy sauce. the mouthfeel is full and sticky with foamy carbonation. Overall a delightful dessert beer, rich, and powerfully flavored, but with enough umami to balance things out.

 

A: Black like well-polished ebony, a super-deep brown. Effectively no head with no retention.

S: Not as much in the nose as I want from a big, bold, adjunct-ed Imperial stout. aLcohol, malt, a wee hint of coconut.

T: A big, bad, slightly sweet imperial stout. And then, suddenly, you realize that's not all black patent and roasted barley, some of that bitterness is dark chocolate and cacao! Coconut is mad subtle, just a suggestion, really. Could have used a stronger hit of whatever flavor additive if they wanted to get to chocolate-covered coconut with this, but as a more traditional flavored stout (though the label says "with natural flavor", a clear indicator that extracts were used), this is a solid beer. The alcohol hit is subtle on the tongue and the thickness of the finish leaves an impression of bittersweet chocolate.

M: Lighter bodied than I expected, but heavy enough to carry the beer. The beer opens like a much thinner, lower-alcohol stout, but then it thickens up on you and by the time you swallow, you're left with the impression of a light coating of cocoa powder on the inside of your mouth. The finish lingers and is rather phlegmatic, coating the back of your mouth.

Overall, a damn tasty flavored imperial stout.

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a quarter finger high dark tan head that died down and lightened up, leaving a thin layer of bubbles covering the surface and a narrow collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light to moderate aromas of coconut are present in the nose along with notes of chocolate.
T: The taste follows the smell, except that the chocolate flavors are stronger and also contribute a light to moderate amount of bitterness.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied and somewhat slick on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation. The alcohol lends a bit of warming to the finish.
O: I really liked how the aromas and flavors of coconut were incorporated into this stout. It also managed to hide its alcohol very well, except from the warming in the mouthfeel.

Serving type: can

16 oz can

Pours ink black, dark tan film for a head which dissipates to almost nothing.

Aroma of coconut, cocoa, toast, coffee bean, and vanilla bean.

Flavor is chocolate, coconut, mild coffee, vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, fig, and toast. A mild hoppiness in the aftertaste.

Medium to full body, stinging carbonation on the tongue. Warms going down.

This is pretty good, the flavor is nice and rich without being cloyingly sweet. Drinks slowly. Worth a try for a big stout on the bitter side.

Pours a dark brown. Motor oil looking. Not even a finger of dark brown head. Tight compact bubbles.

Nose is coconut, chocolate, and roasty malt. Coconut comes through nicely. Strong. Chocolate and malt combine to make a bitter, roasted quality.

Taste is huge roasty malt upfront. HUGE. Wasn't expecting that. After the fade, you get chocolate and mellow coconut. The taste is surprisingly less nuanced that the nose. Where the nose is subtle and complex, the taste just bashes you over the head.

Mouthfeel is smooth as hell. Fullbodied and almost light and fluffy. Very small amount of carbonation. At the very beginning of a sip you get a flash of bubbles, but not much more than that. A little sticky and cloying. Might be too much for some who like a drier finish.

Overall, a stout that promised much, but only did a few things right. The coconut presence was quite nice, but the malt is like a bull in a china shop. Nothing delicate about it. Too big and in the way of everything else trying to go on. Quiet conversation lost amidst the cacophony of loud, inebriated house guests. I love chocolate and coconut as a flavor mixture, but this one doesn't quite reach where you'd want it to.

 

A single 16 oz can, dated 6/29/20, into DFH nonic.

A semi-thick liquid comes from the can, dark chocolate with ruby highlights, and forms a deep dark brown-to-black with slight ruby up the sides. Head is beige, tightly knit, and starts off at a finger and then stabilizes at 1/4 finger. Impressive for a big stout.

Wow, the nose brings coconut straight away, and it's not artificial. It smells like bagged unroasted & unsweetened coconut. Borders on suntan lotion but does not cross over. Excellent. Raw Cacao can also be sampled. Exactly what's advertised. Some torched sugars in this nose as well.

Taste is rather unfinished, with some hard water getting in the way of most anything this beer has to offer. A softer profile would have yielded a better platform to lay the flavors on, but instead, it's very forced, and dull as a result. Hard water; some distinctly mildly piney/moderately perfumey/intensely earthy hop - but so much it's almost as if they double-dry-hopped Fuggles in this thing; then hints of cacao powder, Indonesian coffee, and very faint hints of dusty coconut. I can also taste a very slight twang that will surely develop into infection on shelves within the next couple months.

Feel is medium bodied maybe bordering on heavy, but not exactly in the realm of thicker stouts. It soaks into your tongue and soft tissues and wrings them dry; some medium to high carbonation, a bit of slickness, resinousness, lots of front palate alcohol heat, and a finish of heat and more of that turning-your-tongue-into-a-sponge type thing. Sticky upper lip (I like that).

Overall, as a whole this falls between a roasty Black IPA and a poorly executed/muted adjunct stout. Slickness is redeeming with some nice semi-sweetness but by and large this was a pretty awful beer. It does not taste finished. The adjuncts were subdued to a fault and the hard water profile destroyed the beer's execution. Add to that the impending infection and we have a near-disaster here.

Price paid : $4.29 / can
Would buy again : definitely not

Lupulin Lateralus Cacao & Coconut Imperial Stout, 11% ABV. Pours thick and black, with a two-finger brown head that left no lacing. Nose is coconut and chocolate, taste follows, with slight sweetness and moderate bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent.