Valley of the Shadow
For The Love Of God Brewing Company

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a dark mahogany brown with some light transmission and a ruby red note. Three finger khaki head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of lightly toasted malt, maple syrup, coffee, vanilla and cocoa. Flavor follows, with toasted malt, coffee, maple syrup, vanilla and light cocoa; some light hoppy bitterness and astringency in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A light bodied stout that displays each of its adjuncts fairly well. The maple syrup and vanilla are clear notes, but coffee starts well but develops "old pot of coffee" astringency towards the finish, although the coffee aftertaste is nice. The addition of so many add-ins seems ambitious for the malt depth. This is bordering on an imperial stout ABV and I've found that lighter malt bodies often don't stand up to coffee as well as heavy, deeply toasted malt for my palette. I liked this well enough, but thought it could use a heavier malt body. Good, but not great. I grabbed a pizza at this little brewery and liked it quite a bit. I'll probably stop by here again when I'm in Spokane.

Poured from a 16 ounce undated can into a snifter.

Look- Very dark brown, opaque, visible particulate at the margins, sudsy light brown head, average head retention and lacing.

Smell- Overwhelming vanilla, slight maple syrup, slight roasted malt, medium strength of scent.

Taste- Predominant vanilla, coffee, slight maple syrup, highly sweet, between medium and high strength of flavor.

Feel- Medium body, average carbonation, highly sweet, mildly bitter, mildly creamy, moderately astringent.

Overall- Look was a nice deep brown with some visible particulate at the edges. Bouquet and flavor were dominated by vanilla to the point it was almost undrinkable by the end. This beer was moderately enjoyable to start, but got much less so toward the middle to end.