Pastry Stout w/Mocha, Almonds, Coconut, & Vanilla
Ever Grain Brewing Co.

Poured moderately hard from a tall can into a snifter glass, forming a finger or two of tan head that soon faded to moderate lacing. Cola brown body. Smell is sweet coffee. Taste is a teeny bit sour, with the mocha and coconut featuring primarily. Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Not bad, but the slightly strange sour/coffee notes throw me off.

Have you ever heard the adage of "One door closing means the opening of CANother"? The Pizza Boy horizontal became MUCH more involved than I initially imagined! Between long hours at work & not drinking as much as I would like as a result, it was a really protracted affair. It was also CANspirational in that they are based out of Enola, PA, on the west shore of the Susquehanna River, across from Harrisburg. Also on the west shore is Ever Grain in Camp Hill, PA & if that city seems familiar, then you may have been a Book of the Month Club member at one time. Fasten your seat belts as The CANQuest (tm) takes on this undertaking! 11/13.

From the CAN: "Rotational Series"; "Pastry Stout w/Mocha, Almonds, Coconut, & Vanilla"; "Nutty * Dessert * Chocolatey"; "Camp Hill, PA"; "Est. 2016".

I found the previous one with coffee, et al to be TOO sweet for this Goldilocks, but hope springs eternal on The CANQuest (tm). I beCAN by Crack!ing open the vent to start a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass. Once again, I got a pseudo-cascade, followed by the formation of two-plus fingers of roiling, fizzy, foamy, deep-brown head that seemed simply determined to fade away into wisps. Color was Very Dark Brown to Black/Opaque (SRM = > 34, < 44) with cola highlights visible at the edges. Nose smelled pretty good, actually! I got all of the listed flavors & would have even had they not identified them for me, plus they CANrectly listed them in descending order. The vanilla has been the toughest to pick up in these beers, but in this one, it nicely acCANponied the coconut. Mouthfeel was ... not thin, but definitely thin for a Stout. The taste was MUCH less sweet than in the previous iteration, making it much more palatable to my personal taste. The nuttiness mentioned on the label was spot-on with the almonds working with the coconut & chocolaty-mocha flavors to create a liquefied Almond Joy! Mmm.

I remember realizing early-on that I am a bit of a weirdo when it comes to food. Many of my classmates had a disdain for coconut as did quite a few adults, meaning that I got the coconut CANdies to myself when there was a box to share. My late-maternal grandfather put me onto sardines & smoked oysters which I still dig. Fritos have been a staple since the first time that we had them as a Kindergarten snack. In the Navy, I ate local, eschewing the ubiquitous McDonald's & CANcentrating on street food. In retrospect, I marvel that I never took sick, except once, in Egypt and that was from bad beer that we had been warned about. 8=(

Enough of that, let me return to this beer. They were calling it "dessert", but I am unCANvinced. It really was not all that sweet and actually had a bit of an odd sourness on the finish. I was finding it very pleasant with a cuppa joe, suggesting it as more of a digestif than a dessert. Hmm. Finish was semi-sweet as a result & the mocha-coconut flavors really lingered. That may be something to bear in mind if you are averse to coconut. Hmm. YMMV.