Hornswoggler - Breakfast Blend
The Veil Brewing Co. - Production Brewery

 

 

 

Poured from a 16oz bottle into a pint glass. Thanks Kevin for this one.

Pours a thick motor oil body with a one finger dark brown head that leaves no lacing or retention.

Aromas are roasty and heavy on the coffee, like smelling a cup of fresh espresso with some dark chocolate mixed in. Taste mirrors the nose with big cofee, hugely roasty, dark chocolate, bakers chocolate, bittersweet finish. Pretty thick body with low carb.

I enjoyed this.. pretty sure you could replace your morning cup of cofee with it and not notice.

L: Had this on-tap at The Answer Brewpub, poured into a snifter glass. Had a pitch black color and a thick, opaque consistency. There was a thin, tan-colored, creamy head that quickly dissipated. Not much lacing.

S: A strong, but one-note aroma of coffee, malt, maple syrup, roasted malt, and chocolate.

T: Tasted of a moderate amount of roasted malt (noticeable throughout), light cocoa notes, a ton of coffee (dominates the flavor), light maple syrup notes, and a tinge of hops in the finish. Like the aroma, the coffee overshadows the other ingredients. It's not an unlikable taste, but it is one-dimensional. Kind of tastes like iced coffee.

F: A below average amount of carbonation with a smooth finish. Medium-bodied.

O: Not a bad beer overall, but it has its flaws. Your tolerance of coffee will dictate your liking it or not.

 

The beer pours a nice head that dissipate very quickly while the beer itself is a dark coffee black with a slight brown hue to it. The texture seems to be like a coffee but with a bit more heft to it.

The smell is pretty dang roasty and coffee. The coffee notes smell slightly roasted with a light sweet maple syrup.

The taste is very similar to the smell. It has a strong slightly acidic, roasted coffee note. There is a slight sweet cocoa note. The maple syrup note in the taste is a bit interesting. It adds a good bitter-sweetness that somehow enhances the roasted noted. The finish is a combination of the roasted and maple syrup.

The feel is good. It has a medium body and a thinnish version of a hot chocolate like texture. It isn't coffee thin because it has some body to it. Biting carbonation.

Overall, this is a good beer. It has a good blend of coffee and maple syrup.

 

 

 

 

 

Good thing I was told this can was the breakfast blend, because the stamp on the bottom is a poor, condensed blob with only a readable 'END' on the end, befittingly enough. From what I gather, all Hornswoggler cans are identical, only distinguished by the stamp on the bottom.

Appearance - Pours black with deep brown highlights. Dark tan, near two-finger width head that fizzes away quickly like soda until a barren surface is all that's left. No real lacing to speak of.

Smell - The nose is smacked with burnt coffee, with hints of chocolate, cream and caramel.

Taste - Roasty upfront with some fair milk chocolate sweetness. Fair maple sweetness. And then it goes south. Way south. The finish turns burnt and bitter, like day old Folgers that been recycled through the pot a few times. At the same time, the maple sweetness turns cloying, so you get two extremes of the burnt, bitter coffee and cloying maple sweetness, both of which linger on the tongue and leave quite a 1-2 punch of unpleasantness on the palate.

Mouthfeel - Medium in body with a low carbonation. Quickly thins in the finish but leaves a syrupy stickiness on the lips.

Overall - The nose was okay, but the rest came across as messy and unbalanced. Unrelenting bitter finish with that cloying maple sweetness that did not mix at all, like oil and water. It's living up to the name at least, as a vile, horrible creature. I can't remember the last time I drain poured something, but I'll remember this one. I was looking forward to trying this. I'm now dreading the thought of the Double Espresso I still have. Yuck.

 

 

 

Oily black body with no head and the most minimal lacing.

Burnt coffee and grain on the nose. Slightly vegetal. Cigarette-like. Coffee forward doesn't even begin to describe it. It's too much.

It's like someone left cheap coffee on the pot for too long. Scorched coffee. Slight sweetness. Bitter dark chocolate finish. Like am I supposed to add cream or sweetener to this or something?

Viscous and syrupy. Low carb.

It's like drinking a thick cup of coffee at a cheap diner. Instead of conditioning on coffee beans, they need to blend cold brew. I love the base beer and most other variants that I've had, but this one is a swing and a miss. There is absolutely no balance.

Canned 1-23-18. At first I thought my buddy had sent me just regular, until I looked at the bottom of the can. That is were it was etched in "breakfast blend". Pours pitch black with booming mocha colored head. Rich coffee smells mixed with roasted malts. Really good coffee forward taste profile, that fades into a slight sweet and fairly chocolate finish. Very thick brew with a flavor that just doesn't go away. My only knock is on the overall score, as while it advertised maple, I couldn't pick out that flavor.