12 oz bottle as part of a sixer from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Extraordinary hype has surrounded this beer in the last few weeks, and to be honest I even got a little caught up in it myself. I dislike it when that happens, but of course this is not one of those ultra-limited, one day only release affairs that I had to camp out overnight for (I’d never do that), so at least my dignity remained in tact. Anyway, on to the beer.
Into the DFH signature glass it goes.
Some slightly lighter hues at the extremities of beer that pours the color of cold, instant coffee. There is a very small head that fades quite quickly to yield a thin film on top of the beer. There isn’t any lace to speak of, but the beer does leave some interesting, thinnish, alcohol legs on the inside of the glass. Obviously quite surprising given the ABV which is not all that high, and would not normally be expected to produce such an effect.
It takes quite a bit of warming in the glass before any significant nose comes through. When it does, there is a slight alcohol aroma with some very lightly roasted malts. Not very strong at any point.
The tastes deliver a touch more of the ethanol and a some very light sweet, roasted malts. I suppose there is some chocolate there but again it never gets strong. The alcohol actually builds quite a bit and gets mildly fusel.
Paradoxically the beer has a cream taste to it, but also seems thin in the mouth. Also paradoxically, a beer (and style) that you might expect to suffer if it has a thin mouthfeel, actually seems to benefit from the light touch that the mouthfeel brings. It makes it easy and very drinkable without ever getting heavy.
This is an extremely easy drinking beer, but the lack of real chocolate and quite high ethanol presence make it very interesting too, since it sits outside what I would call a typical Milk/Sweet stout and it sits outside of what it says on the bottle. It never gets really sweet, but is also never bitter. Strangely, the fusel alcohol is what stays with me.
It just never gets really creamy, milky or chocolatey which one would think could make this beer disappointing, but actually it isn’t. Another paradox!