Trap room vol. 2
Trap Door Brewing

16oz can, thick viscous pour, black as night, dark mocha head...compost cookie huh? Vanilla, lactose, rich boozy spirit character, chocolate, coffee, mocha-blend, sharp alcohols, brown sugars...more vanilla, mild tobacco and spices...very full, rich mouthfeel. Really interesting, not sure it needed everything that was added, but it worked OK and overall its good! Thumbs up.

16-ounce can purchased at Trap Door's taproom in Vancouver, WA. No date stamp, but the beer was brewed for last month's Festival of Dark Arts event at Fort George Brewing in Astoria, OR, so I know it's fresh.

Trap Room Vol. 2 is a collaboration with TapRoom Beer Co. of San Diego, CA.

Look:
Opaque black-brown body with rich gold-amber highlights that are only visible when you backlight a small portion of beer at the bottom of the glass. The head is a fluffy tan confection like the middle of a 3 Musketeers bar, with impressive retention. It leaves behind a sticky fog which coats the inside of the glass and eventually diminishes to a thin, gritty lacing.

Smell:
Good lord, this beer smells like a donut shop, that miasma of coffee and fried sugar that sinks into your clothes and takes two washings to remove. I smell tons of sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and bourbon. Secondary components include chocolate, coffee, sweetened coconut, and glazed donuts. And you can call me crazy (you wouldn't be the first), but there's also a note of hash browns in there.

Taste:
Oooooff. It starts off every bit as sweet as the nose warned me. It's like drinking a liquefied Peep. Fortunately, the sweetness quickly veers into a good amount of cinnamon and dark chocolate, which briefly distracts from that powdered sugar intro. Flavors of coffee and dulce de leche (yum!) follow. A burst of coconut and sweet bourbon punches through. Then there's a bright flare of cherry candy and marzipan before the coffee returns to provide a small but perceptible drying effect. A plasticky alcohol flavor mars the finish.

Feel:
Body is medium to heavy, with a texture like warm coffee with heavy cream. Carbonation is gentle. Alcohol heat lights up the inside of my mouth and leaves my lips tingly, then numb.

Overall:
Full disclosure: I don't like pastry stouts, and if I'd known this was that kind of beer I wouldn't have bought it. On the plus side, there's so much going on in this beer that there are a few elements I actually enjoyed. On the other hand, there's no getting away from the fact that this is an overwhelmingly sweet beer, by design. If you have a sweet tooth, Trap Room Vol. 2 will give you what you need. If not, approach with caution. In my case, it might take me 3 nights to finish this cloying beast.

One of the most viscous stouts I've had in a while. Not too sweet, very malty with notes of caramel. Overall this is a solid stout.