Underverse Coffee - BBA
Masthead Brewing Co.

 

This one pours a dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like spicy roasty coffee, caramel, cookie dough, bourbon, oak, spicy grain, and vanilla.

This is great cold out of the can, but as it warms, some of the coffee bitterness fades away to nuttiness and caramel. There's lots of barrel here, but it doesn't get boozy, really. The barrel melds with the coffee flavor, as all the best BA coffee stouts do. It's neither a barrel bomb nor a coffee bomb - it's all part of the whole.

This is medium bodied, creamy, and very drinkable.

I've only had a few Masthead BA beers, but from my small sample size, they tend to be great.

Masthead! Dedicated to trying to suss out whether they’re BA brews really are that good. 16 oz. can.

Blacc & quiet. Aroma brings distant Caribou with heavy barrel. Simple. Direct. Appealing.

Coffee Underverse: as classic as Starship Troopers (the 1997 film, of course). Sharp coffee bite is welded onto a heavy, grainy bourbon hit. And the booze of course. I’m already considering buying a new Tesla tomorrow as my brain function deteriorates. Exhale of cocoa, thick coating of malts. I’ll take a pint of this.

Not complex nor unique, this is a throwback to the single-celled coffee stouts of the 2012 era. Good, solid beer.

Pours black with a couple fingers of khaki foam. Aroma is a dense blast of notes that range from earthy coffee to burning bourbon. Aroma in total leans into roasty, toasty, earthy malts with heavy roasty coffee behind. Bourbon swoops in, developing a little extra heat and complexity in the final third of the aroma alongside barrel. The earthy notes can not be understated. A little raisin and dark fruits slip through the coffee bourbon blast. Flavor profile is toasty, roasty, earthy, and caramely malts with strong coffee, bourbon, and barrel behind. Softer notes of green pepper and berry adorn the back of the beer. It truly is amazing, with the coffee mimicking the shape and profile of coffee beans aged in bourbon barrels - that is to say, roasty, rich, balanced coffee carrying barrel, bourbon, and a little heat across the palate. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a low effervescence. The texture plays into a similar field as high proof bourbon, in which the liquid develops a still, flat consistency, with a notable weight. Overall, one of the more interesting coffee barrel aged stouts in that this profile so closely resembles that of green coffee beans aged in bourbon, then roasted. Coffee is great, bourbon is great, and the underlying stout still (mostly) holds up great.

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

 

 

 

Miss this one

 

 

 

Poured into a tulip from a 16oz can dated 10/11/2018. Pours deep black with slight tan head and residual head around rim. Coffee dominates the nose. Taste is sweet chocolatey coffee, followed by bourbon and warmth from the abv and a slightly bitter finish. Mouth is coated - not cloyingly thick, but sticky. Overall very solid and would enjoy this again.

 

 

 

Received in a trade and shared with JLindros.

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a nice dark black with a thin mocha head that fades to leave light wisps.

S - Big aromas of chocolate chip cookies, bourbon vannila goodness. Really pleasant with no discernable b alcohol burn.

T - Taste is similar to the nose with loads of bourbon juice and chocolate chip cookies. Really nice vanilla notes here and malt sweetness.

M - Mouthfeel is lightly carbonated, creamy Lightly fluffy.

O - Overall this was a solid enough stout. Definitely nice cookie notes.

Serving Type: can

Thanks to rudzud
Big creamy thick foamy mocha colored head, retains well, little lacing, bit of lacing, nice legs

Nose big roasted coffee, dark stout malt, toasted cookie dough, roast very dark chocolate cocoa, mild acrid roast mild bacon smoke like, nice bourbon barrel candy thing

Taste rich creamy cocoa, dark chocolate, big roasted coffee, mild alcohol tingle, candy toasted coffee, hint smoke notes, hint caramel maple candy, smoked cocoa, little bourbon and vanilla barrel notes, bitter spicy lingering hop and some bitterness from malt

Mouth is med to fuller bod, creamy lush, decent but a bit lighter carb, bit of alcohol bit too much

Overall pretty nice

 

16oz can from recent release 10/11/2018 purchased and can stamped same date. Per their info: $20.99 + tax / 2 pack (16 oz cans) - limit 12 2 packs per person.

The onsite consumption in draft form on release day was recorded for posterity but is not included in today's review.

Thick, viscous, opaque black liquid poured into HF goblet. Thin brown rim, mocha surface shadows, scant showing with thick opposite sip lacing.

The aroma is brick thick espresso, dark chocolate, bourbon-vanilla gold, spice and char. The flavors are full, smack your face awake and freshy fresh, so close to eye-opener day drinking, work starter hydration.

Masthead has this base set in stone and the pump up the volume espresso bean, bourbon, fudge delight knocks it out. KBS who?

As an imperial stout should. You've been there, thick coating of the buds from front to back, a swirl shunts the flavors to dormant places previously devoid of sensation.

One of the best BBA coffee stouts out there. Kudos to a young and upcoming brewery.

 

 

 

 

Pour is a beautifully slick and viscous used motor oil with a slowly, evenly building thick mocha layer of carbonation that settles to a thin creamy film and ring.

Smell is luscious mocha chip ice cream with deep, dusty and earthy coffee, a syrupy sort of oak, and a nutty, chocolate-covered pretzel bark. Fucking. A.

Taste is rich and tangy mocha liqueur with a slight sting of peppery charred bourbon oak before it comes veering back into dark chocolatey coffee that has hints of rocky road-esque nutty marshmallow before a slightly stinging vanillin and caramel bourbon exhale.

A tingly mild carbonation runs through a velvety slick medium-thin body before a sticky, lip smacking semi-dry swallow.

This is substantially better than last year's unexpected stunner BBA Tiramisu Underverse. My only ding would be its unnecessary increase in potency over last year's Underverse variants. Thankfully the perceptible heat isn't amped up too drastically in proportion with the ABV.

Went to the brewery for the release. Had it fresh from the tap. Wow! I love the Underverse Series. These dark BBA beers are not my usual go to. However, I cannot deny how good this was. Aromas were amazing. Six Shooter is so good and makes such a great coffee base for these coffee stouts they do at Masthead. I cannot say enough good about this. Masthead is a NEIPA king and it amazes me that they are getting so good at these BBA stouts as well. They are masters at this place.