Bo & Luke (Coffee)
Against The Grain Brewery

1 PINT, 9.4 FL OZ bottle
Served in a snifter

This beer pours black and is topped with less than an inch of tan head that leaves spotty lacing.

The smell is smoky which is nice. I get hints of chocolate, caramel, and vanilla. After it warms a bit I get a black, acrid coffee smell.

The taste is smoky and chocolaty up front. I get caramel and vanilla in the middle with bitter, black coffee in the finish. Smoke flavor persists throughout.

Full bodied with a smooth mouthfeel

This is a great smoked beer. There are not enough smoked stouts.

Party town Backroom brawl 2013.

This coffee variant was brewed especially for Friday Night Flights at Party Town in Florence, KY (world premiere - Friday, December 13th, 2013!). Poured from a growler into a Stone IRS snifter. It's my understanding this was brewed with Heine Brothers Coffee. The pour is very dark, not quite opaque, not too viscous, and has low carbonation (common for barrel-aged beers). The nose has lots of coffee, but the smoke and bourbon notes from the Bo & Luke still manage to cut through it, making the nose very distinct and complex (come on - smokey bourbon and coffee? who does that??). I found that swirling the glass brings coffee and chocolate to the foreground while letting it sit allows the smoke to dominate.

Full body, firm feel, and lots of complexity on the palate. Like the regular Bo & Luke, it's not one of those stouts that looks like motor oil in the glass, but what it lacks in body it makes up for in flavor. The smoke makes its presence known right on the front of the palate, but it doesn't dominate. It just sort of dances with all the other great flavors - vanilla, toffee, and chocolate. This one adds a nice, rich (not bitter) coffee component to what was already a lovely bouquet of flavor. Like the standard Bo & Luke, everything is very balanced and the flavors complement each other extremely well.

Overall, a real winner from an impressive little brewery. I was told this was something AtG just sort of threw together for the last ``backroom brawl'' of the year at Party Town. AtG is the traditional host of the last ``backroom brawl'' of the year and they pull out all the stops. They really made a hit with this one in my book. I'm not sure how smoke, coffee, and bourbon play on some palates, but on mine it plays like a major leaguer!