Obscura
Side Project Brewing

 

 

 

Poured from a can at fridge temp. Pours jet black with a good amount of light brown head. The nose is dominated by vanilla. This is followed by beautiful milky chocolate. A touch of roasted malts breezes over the nose, but it's minimal. The taste adds a few dimensions not found on the nose. A bit of burnt toffee, more vanilla and chocolate, dark roast coffee, tobacco, and some roasted malts. Smooth and creamy mouthfeel. Overall, great beer.

Pours black with two fingers of dense mocha colored foam. Aroma is vanilla beans, toffee, molasses, and roasty and toasty malts. It's not aggressive, or intense, hitting basic stout notes, then receding. Flavor profile has the same baseline stout notes - roasty, toasty malts, and some faint caramel behind. It's sweetened up by vanilla bean, which lingers throughout the flavor profile, and lasting past the decay of malts. It's simple, and refined. Mouth feel is creamy with a medium-thin viscosity. It drinks a touch thin, but matches up with the ABV well. Overall, simplistic clean stout is met with vanilla beans. Vanilla beans are very forward, but remain well balanced in the profile without a cloying level of sweetness.

Served in a 15.5oz Speiglau tulip from a 16oz can.

Definitely reminded me of the Cocoa/Vanilla Base Weight. Dry, lightly bitter, with balanced notes of malt and chocolate. Vanilla is subdued but cuts the robust base nicely. Really well done.

 

poured from a 16oz can into a willi becher pint glass. pours an oily jet black with almost a finger of mocha-colored foam. aromas of chocolate, roasted malts, slight coffee and of course, vanilla. taste is a little more roast forward when cold but as it warms up it takes on more of a chocolate cake flavor. happy to report basically zero hop presence. a medium mouthfeel with a fairly light carbonation. really tasty. the chocolate and roast of the base stout work really well with the vanilla, which never dominates. a really enjoyable after dinner digestif.