Cottonwood Hazelnut Stout

Brewed by Carolina Beer Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Mooresville, North Carolina USA

Bottle at the Knoxville Spring(ish) tasting. Pours black with tan head. The aroma is almost identical to a hazelnut latte. The flavor is hazelnut coffee in a big, obvious way. It gets really nutty the more sips I have, and takes on the resemblance of an Almond Joy candy bar. Nothing balanced about this, but still surprisingly tasty.

Pours a black color with a brown head. Aroma is hazelnut, chocolate, some roasted malts. Flavor is hazelnut, some chocolate, and roasted malts.

Bottle# 295, courtesy of Ross at the Knoxville tasting. Pours black with a nice brown head. Very nice and aggressive aroma of coconut, chocolate, hazelnut, and vanilla coke. Medium light texture and Cola like on the palate. Flavor is sweet, with flavors of a mounds candy bar and mild roast coffee. If you like sweet flavored ice coffee , you will like this beer. One dimensional, but in a good way. Unique and enjoyable. Thanks Ross

Sampled at the Knoxville Tasting. I had been holding onto this beer for a while after reading the previous three reviews of it saying that it was perhaps too much to bring out for yourself, and better to split it, so thats just what I did. Pours out a dark black color with a thin tan head on it. The smell is so strong, that I could smell it being poured two seats down from me. Coconut, hazelnut, coffee, some light chocolate notes, powerful, amazing smelling beer. Taste is sweet and thick, very rich, some coffee notes, but alot of coconut and hazelnut. Very strong and very sweet, probably too much for me to drink a whole bomber of by myself, but damn, it is a really solid good beer. Very well done guys.

Bottle. I’m not sure at all what to expect here. Their Almond stout is quite cloying and one dimensional, yet the other Cottonwood high alcohol beers have been pretty decent and complex. So, which route will be chosen here? I pour quite a bit of the brew into a Brandy snifter to reveal a seriously black stout. This is one of those beers that is jet black. The head is a dark brown and lingers for 4 or 5 minutes before disappearing into nothing. Oh, this is one of my outside tastings. The temperature is currently 28 and the beer is about 68 degrees and will slowly cool down to cellar temp. The aroma is very potent on this one. I can smell it before I even make any effort to get a good whiff. Hazelnuts. Yeah. Tons of hazelnuts. Leaning towards the glass, I take a good sniff. I can pick up a bit of cacao and coffee this time, but still giant hazelnut presence. I let it sit just for minute before taking a sip. It strikes me as a notch thin for an imperial stout, but still fairly hearty. It’s an expected thickness for a normal stout. Hazelnuts blast my palate. The finish is very earthy and a bit roasty, like hazelnuts. There is a thin malty sweetness, but this isn’t a sugary brew by any stretch of the imagination. Okay, so this is something of a compromise between the two poles that I was expecting. It is quite one dimensional, that dimension being hazelnuts. However, it is not grittingly sweet or artificial tasting like some other flavored stouts (e.g. their own Almond Stout). I am very much enjoying it and it makes a great winter warmer. As an imperial stout, it disappoints, but I’m not sure an impy was their intention in the first place. As the brew cools down a bit the finish becomes even more nutty somehow. Less roasty and ashy, but more of a defined meaty sweetness, honestly like the flavor I’d find in just eating a handful of nuts. Pretty good stuff here, but I’d definitely be experiencing a specific craving to really want one of these again.

Thanks to Ross for sharing this bottle with us at the Tennessee Spring(ish) Tasting! (Bottle #295) Poured black with a thin tan head. Huge hazelnut aroma backed with coconut and chocolate. The flavor is liquid Almond joy; coconut, chocolate, nut, hazelnut. It’s sweet throughout but not overpowering. Medium body and a hazelnut coffee aftertaste. Thanks Ross for this rare one!

Roasted hazelnut pours from the aroma. Upon closer exam, there is a deep bitter bakers chocolate and perhaps some vanilla in there as well. Pours a very dark brown with a viscous tan head. A bit of tartness lends a very drinkable quality to this thick strong stout. The alcohol content is very obvious in this one. Flavor is bittersweet with hazelnut in every corner and crevice of this beer. Don’t even think about trying this one with dinner. This is a desert beer all the way.

Pours dark, light absorbing black. Latte head fades to a thin gossamer ring around the pint glass. This beer absolutley wreeks of hazelnuts. I would believe that this beer is actually dosed with Frangelico. Sweet and roasty elements climb through the hazelnuts on the nose. Toffee and more nuttiness on the palate. I would akin this to drinking an iced coffee with hazelnut syrup. Clean enough on the finish to asure that it’s not cloying. Chocolate covered nuts linger on the palate after the last sip. I had this after a big meal and it hit the spot. Not a session beer by any means. But, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?????