Sobchak
Fidens Brewing Company

Can from the source. Some wild ideas. Coffee and lots of gas, its over a half year canned and still foaming somewhat. I get a lot of lactose and stomach burning. Nitro or high powered carbonation.

Canned on 11/30/2023; consumed on 2/26/2024

Pours a silky, motor-oil hue capped with two fingers of creamy, dark khaki foam; good head retention leaves ¾ of a finger of cap, a large, frothy collar, and a minimalist display of thin, soapy lacing spattered about the walls of the glass.

Aroma wafts nutty roast into fragrant coffee and slight undertones of toasted walnut; underlying cocoa emerges over time while a burnt vanilla subtlety lingers.

Taste opens with underlying roast and dark cacao, leaving bittersweet coffee toning a quiet dark fruit intonation past the mid-palate as nougat subtext meets milk chocolate on the back end of the profile.

Mouthfeel brings a medium-full body and minimal-light carbonation, dispersing silky, creamy texturing atop a building roast past the mid-palate as an understated semi-stickiness grazes palate into the swallow.

Nuttier coffee yields a progressively sweeter roast while steady char reveals quiet layers of cacao and dark fruit accents; a richer, earthier coffee stout.

Pours black as sin as a brown froth erupts Vesuviusly. Oops, spillage occurring. First sip is a coffee chocolate creamy roasts. The booze is there. Feels velvety and smooth. It’s good!

This beer pours a beautiful obsidian black, with a dark brown head that quickly dissipates to a thin brown collar around the top of the glass. I did see some chunks of sludge drop into the glass as I was pouring. The smell is somewhat muted, there is a hint of roasted malts, but not much else. The taste is of rich dark chocolate malts with a slight hint of booze, but nowhere near what you would expect from a 9.2% ABV stout. I'm not picking up any coffee in either the taste or smell, but that may be attributable to fact that I purchased this beer almost 6 months ago. The feel is thick and almost chewy, there is a bit of prickly carbonation that would be better if toned down a little. Overall, this is a great stout, it is tasty and very drinkable. I think it compares quite favorably with other big-name stouts I've had in the past.

Please note, the description of this beer is incorrect, it is not a Sweet/Milk Stout and it is 9.2% ABV not 6.5%. I'll post a picture and try to get the stats corrected

 

 

I was really impressed by how drinkable this milk stout was. I had this poured from a growler into a pint glass. The coffee is there but isn't too strong. The beer was creamier than I expected, and that was a nice surprise. I've enjoyed Fiden's hoppier offerings in the past, and was weary of something out of the style, but this was really enjoyable.

This one pours a dark black color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like creamy coffee, roast, chocolate, and licorice.

This is a solid effort for their first time using coffee in a beer. The coffee tastes basic, but has a lingering chocolatey and roasty character that's really nice for me. The lactose is judiciously added, and doesn't overwhelm.

This is creamy, and bigger bodied than the ABV would tend to suggest. It's quite drinkable.

I expect great things from Fidens in the future.