Dreams III
Structures Brewing

Structures Dreams III BBA Imperial Stout, 12.5% ABV. Pours thick and the blackest black, with a ring of bubbles that dissipated while I f'd around trying to get the focus right, leaving an oily sheen. Aroma is strong coconut, maple syrup, chocolate, and coffee. Taste follows, with chocolate and coffee taking the lead, quite sweet just short of cloying, faintly bitter, no bourbon burn. Excellent thick and smooth mouthfeel, overall world class.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown; nearly black, appearing opaque in the glass with a thin khaki head that dissipates to sparse patches with slight lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, bourbon, coffee, coconut and maple syrup; a bit boozy. Flavor is dark toasted malt, toasted coconut, bourbon, drip coffee and maple syrup. Sweetish finish with maple syrup and bourbon infused coffee. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. I'm baffled how they got as much stout into the can as they did. Although not that carbonated, the beer leapt out of the can on opening spattering around the can. What remained formed a noticeable meniscus above the opening, despite having already lost some volume. Not sure I've ever seen this before. After the interesting can opening, the stout appeared very dark and seemed to have some viscosity. Both the aroma and flavor are deep and display the bourbon barrel character and adjuncts quite nicely. Maple was faint in the aroma, but more pronounced in the flavor with lingering aftertaste. The flavors are well integrated and balanced. In the first sip, I thought the body was thinner than the pour indicated, but as I finished the glass, there was a solid, pleasant mouthfeel. The overall flavor is somewhat reminiscent of a blended strong ale, although there is no indication of a barleywine component. Rich and worthy barrel aged coffee stout.

2025-04-02
16oz can served in a curvy Monhegan pint glass. Don't see a date on it. Probably bought it within the last couple weeks at Chuck's Hop Shop Seward Park.

Pours black, syrupy, small dark short-lived fizzy head leaves behind a crescent moon along the edge with one pinky-nail sized island in the middle. Smell is rich, boozy, spicy rye and molasses sweet, vanilla and toffee, chocolate syrup and burnt coffee. Strong charred barrel.

Taste is leaning into the boozy and the rye, gives me so much rye spice it makes me think of cinnamon (enough to check the can for a mention -- no, but the rye spice and coconut are coming together to make me think that), molasses unabashedly reveals itself as maple syrup in disguise all along. Heavily sweetened coffee, lots of vanilla and butterscotch.

Mouthfeel is thick, smooth, silky. Overall, very good, but a pint of this is going to be too much coconut for me, personally.

They absolutely nailed this. The maple is a subtle sweetness in the background while the coconut and coffee share the spotlight with a decadently chocolatey base stout. Smooth brown liquor throughout and that toasted coconut note is extremely well done. Just perfectly dialed to suit my palate, loving this. Thanks Ryan!