school me on coffee stouts

You are ok OP. While I love coffee stouts, I understand where you are coming from. In my opinion, the coffee in the stout does tend to add a bitterness, but it is not enjoyed by you. Some people just don't like coffee stouts, and that is just fine. I am probably the opposite of you. I cannot stand a strong hop bitterness in beer, so I steer clear of IPAs. Judging by your reaction of Lagunitas Cappucino stout(which, in my opinion has a good coffee flavor overall, and is a steal for the price), the coffee bitterness is not your thing.

 

Not sure if you're into trading, but Trillium Night and Day might be just what you're looking for. I actually wasn't too crazy about it because there wasn't enough bitterness from the coffee/roasted malts, but you might like it since it's on the sweeter side of the spectrum in terms of coffee stouts.

 

Funny this thread just came up today. I love very coffee forward stouts and porters as well. Not a big fan of Lagunitas cappuccino stout either. Got to use good coffee to have a good coffee stout and I'm just not sure that's the case with their Cappuccino. Love Highly West-ified too but overall favorites are Sump and Victory At Sea. Within minutes though I'll be sipping on Jamaican Blue Speedway. Little over a year old and I hope the coffee taste hadn't mellowed to much. Kind of forgot I had it...

 

Just had KBS this week. Still think Big Bad Baptist is my favorite.

 

One suggestion I have regarding coffee stouts is that freshness matters. I'm a huge fan of Founders Breakfast Stout, great coffee stout imo. But I think it loses a great deal of its quality as time passes. Try to find a really fresh coffee stout and see if that makes a difference for you. Perhaps look for one on tap at a local craft brewery.

Once you've discovered what's what in Coffee Stouts, then its time to move on to Coffee IPAs.

 

As far as what I like best it's Bourbon County Coffee, then Kbs. Love the barrel influence.

 

PLEAD THE 5TH IMPERIAL STOUT
The fifth and final beer in our stout series. Our Russian Imperial Stout is pitch black in color with a faint tan head that immediately identifies this beer as BIG. Aromas of dark fruits, chocolate, caramel and roast also make it even bigger. Roasted coffee and fruity chocolate notes are just the beginning of this beers complex flavor. You have the right to enjoy or remain silent (ha, ha!)
From the Breweries description.

 

As coffee can be easily over-extracted, so to goes coffee stouts. It is interesting to bring up hops & coffee in relation to bitterness, because they can be similarly overused. Many a hop head will tell you that some very hoppy IPAs are not actually that bitter, and coffee can follow a similar route. Breweries that use over-roasted or low quality coffee are going to get that abrasive bitter coffee note in the beer. A lot of breweries are having success essentially blending their stouts with a cold brew coffee instead of adding ground coffee to the boil or something.

The fruitiest/floral coffees work best in my opinion (someone above already mentioned African coffees like ones from Rwanda, Ethiopia, etc. Definitely seek out breweries that have experience using coffee in beer or are also coffee nerds (Modern Times roasting their own beans shows they have a good understanding of how they mesh, or Goose Island's relationship with Intelligentsia, too), or that are transparent about which coffee they use and how they incorporate it.

 

If it is by description a coffee stout, I want that bad boy to smell and taste like an iced coffee. Two exemplary ones that come to mind are Pisgah Valdez and Kaldi Imperial Coffee Stout. Both just smell and taste like a strong pour, and taste like iced coffee (assuming you drink it cold), and with some booze to kick it up a notch.

Carton's Regular Coffee truly does taste like coffee with cream and two sugars, and a miraculously hidden 12% abv too so, in my opinion, that one is a benchmark.

 

Yeah exactly. Coffee notes doesn't imply coffee added. Thats a commonly used flavor description.

 

From bjcp just so you know: http://www.bjcp.org/styleguide12.php Read flavor for RIS.

 

Although not a "coffee stout", Dark Truth Stout from Boulevard has a super nice and balanced coffee flavor to my palate.

 

They are everywhere, its the thing to do with stouts right now and maybe for the rest of beerternity. I feel like it's become like a fail-proof way to make a stout or barrel-age something and the brewer or brewery knows it will be a hit or even if it's just mediocre, they won't be entirely disappointed nor will their followers because everybody pretty much drinks coffee nowadays, so their pallets just expect some trace of bourbon or hops to give it a thumbs up or make the "Mmm" sound. In my opinon, it's quite over-powering too, I find it masks any other ingredients incorporated and a lot of times, if I have a duplicate of a coffee beer, I hold it until the coffee begins to drop off.

 

speedway stout and as fresh as possible

 

These days, for me, I compare other coffee beers to Sump. This is my coffee beer role model. However, I am certain this will change in the not too distant future.

 

• All of the above, I kid... I would just tell you to ask yourself, what do I like about this beer or not? Most of the coffee beers I dislike are just to damn thin in the mouthfeel. Some times when I connect this dot it allows me to explore is this what they were aiming for or was I expecting another monster/heavy beer with coffee? Very few of these under 7.0 AV seem well executed, many of those seem to be a stout strained through coffee grinds...

 

The first bottle I had was damn sweet. Is that what you get?

 

There was some sweetness, but not over the top for me. I really enjoyed it the first time I had it. I am sure Sump will suffer with extended aging, what do you say?

 

Alesmith, Alesmith, Alesmith.

 

what does plead the 5th cost a bottle?