Big Bear Espresso Cream Stout

Brewed by Big Bear Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Coral Springs, Florida USA

Serve in English pint

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UPDATED: FEB 9, 2007 Draft at the brewpub. Huge coffee aroma is very concentrated and doesn’t allow much stage time for other aromas, but rather lets the mild roasted grain and chocolate aromas meld into the coffee aroma. Still if you love the smell of coffee this smells very good. The body is dark to black brown and holds an impossibly lasting and creamy tan head that is a thumb thick and bone white. Fore is much more notable for the creamy texture than the flavor, but then you taste the mild roasted malt and coffee flavors before a thinnish bottoming out in the finish. Like the aroma if you like coffee you will enjoy it, but it isn’t much more than a vehicle for coffee delivery. That being said....I really love coffee and this a very good looking beer with a huge coffee accented aroma and flavor so hard not for me to like it despite some flaws (according to my preferences).

Tap. My buddy Marko ordered one so I had to take a few sips. Very dark brown color. Sweet malts. Creamy texture. goes down smooth. 22 Nov 08.

Lava lamp nitro effect. Black-brown fading to big thick tan head. Nice lace. Diacetyl taints the aroma, which has little coffee. The smooth carbo is typical of nitro and slightly stickier than usual. Sweet coffee creamer flavors, finishing like a coffee eclair. Not the best thing Big Bear has put out...

Dark brown/black. Thick nitro head. Sweet and buttery nose with light coffee accent. Heavily coffeeish with a hint of creaminess and background vanilla and diacetyl. Not my thing at all.

On tap at restaurant tonight. Black pour with a Guinness-like head. Aroma is sweet and smells of chocolate covered coffee beans. Flavor is very sweet and malty. Chocolate, coffee, molasses. Rich mouthfeel makes this pretty damn good.

on tap-pours a creamy tan head and black color with red tint. Aroma is coffee. Taste is lots of espresso grounds-dark malt, secondary hops bite/acidic, roasty. OK carbonation. Not my style but nicely done.

On tap. Pour is a dark brown, almost black, with a tan head. There is a dark roasted and chocolatey stout backbone to this brew, but the strong coffee/ espresso element dominates the flavor from beginning to end. Very dark rich stout, but the espresso flavor is a little out of balance to me. This would be great as a beer float though.

UPDATED: NOV 1, 2008 Nitro... Black ale with a mid-sized, creamy, light brown head. Outstanding retention... nitro, after all. The aroma is a swirl of rich chocolate and espresso with vanilla and hazelnut undertones. The bold flavor leans on the sweet side of balance. A masterful blend of solid, roasted malts, acidic and tannic espresso beans and moderately bitter hops. Full-bodied with a creamy mouthfeel and modest carbonation. Finishes rich, mildly sweet and astringent.

My Bottom Line:
-A most seductive coffee aroma leads the taster into a creamy and sweet tiramisu-like dessert libation. Its roasty passages work wonderfully with the dark coffee bitterness to create a satisfying pint of stout.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-This is served way too cold!
-A nitroed head sits comfortably atop the brownish black.
-The flavor profile is mostly sweet, but it’s very well conceived for its purpose.

On tap at the brewpub.

This was the best beer at FBG 07. The aroma is like a cup of sweet, hazelnut espresso. The appearance is brown with a disappointingly small head. The flavor is just like the aroma. The palate is smooth. I like this one a lot.

good beer, frothy and thick head, deep coloring and a strong coffee aroma and taste. great beer with a chocolatey dessert. thick and easy drink. well balanced.