Coconut French Toast
Decadent Ales

 

 

Oh boy, this is surely gonna be an interesting one. Some background: I marked this as a got, it was back in May 2020 when I bought it on a whim. It's been in the back of my fridge since. Every time I see it I think "Damn, that's old, I need to drink it" but invariably never end up drinking it because I see a better option or I'm simply not in the mood for it. Tonight, I was buzzed enough to reach for the can. There's no canning date, but I'm willing to bet it was even a bit before I bought it. This should be interesting

Pours a murky gold with 2 fingers of creamy white head that slowly fades to a cap and leaves nice lacing, but there's a literal fuck fest of particulate floating around in my glass

Shockingly, even with probably 1+ year of hop fade, this doesn't smell overly sweet. I'm picking up on aromas of sticky maple syrup, earthy cinnamon, sweet caramel malt, artificial coconut, and some general citrus from the hops but it's faded significantly

The taste, however, is a bit more muddled. On the front end I'm tasting light orange, maple syrup, and pale malts. On the swallow it turns into a mess, bringing notes of sweet coconut, stale cinnamon, pale malt, tangerine, and more maple syrup

A medium full body pairs with very gentle carbonation, resulting in a smooth and creamy beer. Finishes mostly dry, definitely the best part of this thing

This, my friends, was an experience. I'd suggest to mostly disregard my review if you haven't tried this beer yet, as I'm reviewing a very old can. Knowing Decadent, I'm sure this would be quite good fresh, and it's not awful right now either, but nothing spectacular. The mouthfeel held up surprisingly well, but all else was quite strange

 

 

 

$4.49 USD plus tax for a 16 fl oz pull-tab can in New Orleans, LA. Label looks like it was done by a struggling Brooklynite artist.

"Double India Pale Ale with Coconut, Caramelized Sugar, Maple Syrup and Cinnamon added." 8.6% ABV. "Brewed and packaged by Dorchester Brewing Co., Boston MA for Decadent Ales." "Distributed by Twelve Percent."

APPEARANCE: Hazy dull orange body. Appears unfiltered and a bit lifeless...lacks vibrance.

Head is off-white but lacking in creaminess. Robust for the highish ABV, sticking around a good 7+ minutes, but the consistency isn't great despite the good (~3cm) height.

AROMA: Maple syrup/maple sugar. Pale malts/2-row. Coconut is present, though it doesn't seem particularly genuine (I wouldn't be surprised if it was coconut extract or some tinned coconut puree made for brewers). I don't find cinnamon or even cassia.

All of which is to say - where are the hops? There're some muted floral and tropical fruity aromatics, but this is an imperial IPA and the hops aren't the star of the show, which is a real problem in a style meant to showcase hops to the utmost extent.

If the goal was to evoke French toast, it doesn't do so aromatically...despite the presence of maple syrup and obvious sugary sweetness, they don't combine to suggest French toast (which is bready and buttery and all kinds of things I wouldn't want my beer to be anyway).

Aromatic intensity is average.

TASTE: The clean coconut flavour is nice - subtle enough to not feel too loud or overt but present enough that it contributes. Malt backbone feels bright...2-row, maybe some wheat but I doubt it. I don't taste any caramalt or crystal malt, though I'd bet caramalt is there propping up the ABV. Maple is present but it's more of a timid maple sugar presence than a committed maple syrup flavour. Cinnamon? Not finding it (or Cassia).

Again, the hops are barely there...this fails to showcase any hop varietal well whatsoever. Some vague muted floral hops are present and that's it. Not grapefruity, citrusy, piney, resinous, oily, oniony, yogurty, herbal, earthy, woodsy, etc...I guess I get some faint vague tropical fruit (guava if there's a gun to my head) but it just isn't prominent enough.

I will say despite the lack of obvious hop bitterness or hop flavour and the obviousness of the sugary additives, it doesn't taste cloying or egregiously imbalanced despite being on the sweet side for the style. It's not so much that the problem is the presence of the additives but rather the absence of the hops. Which, still, is criminal in an imperial IPA, but I do think this beer could be saved with some tweaking.

TEXTURE: Medium-bodied (which is apt). Coating. Soft. Smooth. Wet. Well carbonated.

OVERALL: Maybe I just got an old can and the hops have faded leaving only the additives? I accept no blame since Decadent hasn't put a clear/logical canned on or best by date on the can, but it's possible.

It's not the gimmick beer it could be, but it does lean hard on its additives for flavour at the criminal expense of showcasing hop varietals well. Has less hop pungency than most pale ales to its obvious detriment. I'm starting to rethink buying Decadent Ales' beers at all in the future given the lack of quality coupled with the high prices, but this beer does have room for improvement (though no one actually wants a French toast imperial IPA, right?) if they dial up the hops and make the additives a bit more genuine.

Ignoring its fundamental failure to deliver in terms of the intended style, I think it's an above average beer overall (treating it benevolently as a sort of additive-laden pale strong ale - if you will).

C+ / ABOVE AVERAGE

 

Pours murky, gold in color with 1/4 inch head. Taste is big maple syrup, vanilla, with light coconut and citrus rind. Sweet, medium-light bodied, medium-high carbonation. Tasty dessert ipa. Unique and tropical. Would certainly get this again.