22 oz silk-screened bottle. Winter 2008 bottling.
Pour is as expected with a deep, black body and some nice, frothy, mocha colored head. Not a great deal of lace but considering the ABV not an issue. Brown highlights.
Nose is surprisingly muted and lacks much of any discernable coffee notes.
Tastes are essentially very bitter, and not really in a good way. One might expect this to reflect some bitter coffee-grinds but that’s not the bitterness I am really getting. It’s a much more cigar, tobacco, leathery bitterness, not that pleasant. In addition the coffee is basically non-existant.
I would love to try this fresh just to see if the coffee is really part of the profile which has now faded, or if it was never there in the first place. Given the name, it was disappointing that it was not there. Either this beer is not a very good coffee based stout, or it simply doesn’t age well.