Lick the Spoon
White Elm Brewing Company

White Elm Lick The Spoon Imperial Stout, 12% ABV. Pours thick and black, with a 1+ finger brown head that left some lacing. Nose is incredibly strong chocolate brownie batter, taste follows, with slight sweetness, and moderate bitterness. Excellent mouthfeel, overall excellent.

Update 8/28/24; reviewing a newer batch, it's now quite bitter so really no longer a pastry stout. Adjusted my score down based on the taste. The only thing saving it is the aroma.

Review: 2187
Name: Lick the Spoon
Brewery: White Elm Brewing
Location: Lincoln, NE
Style: Imperial Milk Stout
ABV: 12%
Date: Unknown
Let's delve into the details of this brew. The pour, done into a pint glass at 46 degrees, resulted in a frothy, airy, one-fingered, light-tan head with poor retention. The color is inky black with dark brown hues and opaque, charting at SRM 34. While the appearance is average, the dissipation could have been better, providing a detailed assessment of the beer's characteristics.
Nosing the glass, I smell an intense fudgy chocolate aroma. It is dark chocolate, light bittersweet, and has a little bit of Beligum fine chocolate. Nosing the glass again, I detect figs, nutty, raisins, molasses, treacle, burnt sugar, caramel, toffee, and earthy. The malt profile is massive with notes of lightly toasted malts, bready, doughy, cakey, and worty. Other aromas are floral, woody, alcohol, and earthy. The beer smells like a fudgy brown soaked in a milk stout.
I loved the aromas, but the flavors could have been better. The fudgy chocolate brownie was reduced to a cheap supermarket brownie. The chocolate is chalky, bittersweet, and vanilla. The malt profile is firm with notes of toasted malts, roasted caramel, earthy, and molasses. Other flavors in the beer are toffee, lightly roasted chocolate, nutty, figs, treacle, burnt sugar, floral blossom, grassy, alcohol, cakey, and woody.
The mouthfeel is chewy, finishing smooth. The body is heavy and has medium carbonation.
I need to understand how the aromas are vastly different from the taste. After nosing this beer for the last ten minutes, I was excited to try it, but I was let down. The beer has a light oxidation note, but that does not distract from the overall flavor. I would rather smell the brownie batter than lick the spoon.

Midnight black pour with a brown cap. Smell is absolutely incredible! Huge rich chocolate fudge cake, ganache, syrup, and liqueur. Wow so decadent. Taste is a diabetic nightmare with how sickly sweet it is, huge chocolate like the nose but the finish is pure sugar. Still if you have a craving for chocolate this hits the spot despite the syrupy and cloying body.

 

A: The beer is jet black in color. It poured with a short light tan head that left a narrow collar and lots of lacing down the sides of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of chocolate brownies are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell and has flavors of chocolate brownie batter and cocoa powder.
M: It feels nearly medium-bodied and a bit airy on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer was a little lighter in body from what I would expect from the style and it was very easy to drink.

Serving type: can