Pot De Crème - Chocolate And Blackberry
Hubbard's Cave Brewery

From a can. Another over-the-top beer from Hubbard's Cave. Sort of a cross between a sour and a porter. A little too sweet, a little too slippery -but that's what I was in the mood for.

 

 

 

16oz can. No dating information found, but the label does include '2020-1'.
Black colored body, no back lit edge. Thick medium tan head, which sticks around. A body swirl leaves behind a sheet of lacing.
Aroma of berry (blackberry), chocolate, and dark roasted malt. Also some cream and alcohol.
Taste is very much the blackberry, with the chocolate being a steady influence. Some extension into the aftertaste but fading. Very solid dark roasted malt base.
Quite thick mouth feel. Minimal alcohol burn for the ABV%. Good carbonation.
Sweet/tart variation on an imperial stout. Very well made but quiet overall. The berry is very well blended with the chocolate malt.

 

08/02/20 can @ home

Agree with some other reviewers that they nailed the relatively uncommon blackberry addition/effort.....not too sweet, not too up front strong alcohol (despite 12% abv) , very unique and enjoyable. I will have to seek out some of their other Pot de Cremes.

Appearance - The beer poured in inky black color with a slight mocha colored head.

Smell - The beer had a big-time nose of blackberry and chocolate. It smelled as though real blackberries were in here.

Taste - chocolate, and blackberry are spot-on. The chocolate was very smooth and the blackberry seemed very fresh. There was not anything synthetic here.. I cannot think of a beer that I have had that captures the taste of blackberry so well.

Mouthfeel - Hubbard’s Cave stout continue to be rich and full bodied.

Overall - Hubbard’s Cave makes elite stouts.

 

 

 

Hubbard’s Cave Blueberry & Chocolate Pot De Creme 12 % ABV. This Imperial Stout pours a dark brown almost black color with a purple hue the head is dark tan colored half finger width that dissipates quickly. The aroma is bursting with ripen sweet blueberries almost like blueberry pie with hints of dark chocolate and roasted malts smells very sweet and rich pretty much no hoppy aroma. The flavor again is bursting with ripe blueberries and dark chocolate with hints of roasted malts and lactose maybe even a little bit of vanilla rounding out the rich creamy sweet flavor there is a little bit of heat coming from the alcohol content but nothing to crazy. The mouthfeel is creamy and mouth coating almost makes your lips sticky this beer would be great on a cold winters night to keep you warm. 4.75/5

 

 

 

16 oz. Can
2019 Release

Poured into a Tree House glass a really nice dark brown/black color, pretty nice carbonation, with a very nice thick/creamy one-finger plus dark tan head, which also leaves some pretty nice size islands, and some nice sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with a very nice chocolate/toffee, blackberry, vanilla, slight licorice. The taste is very nice, malty, with a very nice touch of chocolate/toffee, with some blackberry, some pretty nice vanilla sweetness, licorice. Full Body, ABV is hidden very nicely, a very tasty sipper, with a nice little dry/bitter/sweet finish. Overall, this is a very tasty brew. Nice to see it around here.

 

i liked this one a lot better than the raspberry version. i had that one in the bottle, and this one on tap, but more than the format accounting for the drastic difference, i reckon it is the inherent properties of the respective fruits. where the raspberry had some obvious acidity that seemed to almost clash with the stout, break down some of its richness and such, the blackberry is more jammy and sweet, and seems to enhance it. it goes especially well with the chocolate and the deep roasty barley in the base beer here, and it lingers in a sweet way, like chocolate dipped, desserty without being too much. i also think there was a weird friction between the raspberry and the vanilla, like one trying to be decadent and rich and the other one trying to be almost savory and sharp, where there is more of a shared vision with the blackberry and the vanilla in this one, perhaps just a better match overall. i have never had a fruited pot de creme dessert in real life, always just chocolate an coffee, so its hard to draw a parallel to the implied desserts, but the blackberries just seem to work better! smooth and full, layers upon layers of flavor, all very compatible and unique, flashes of chocolate and then fruit, vanilla and then dark roast, sweet but not overly so with the lactose, long and mellow to drink on, with somewhat of a less exposed alcohol property than i remember in the raspberry one too. delicious, even if a small pour is really all i need of this...

Much better than the raspberry version, but still has some flaws. The smell is much improved, with the blackberry and chocolate covering all others, but hints of metal on some sniffs do endure. Taste is not as streamlined, with a weird peanut butter taste in the middle of it all, and again like raspberry, unnecessarily harsh booze in the finish where you would hope for a sweet dessert rounding out. Still think this idea for the stout is good, and in some sips it executed, just needs to be cleaned up