East End Homewood Reserve

Brewed by East End Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker, Snifter

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2009 vintage shared by Jason. The beer pours to a black body with a tall foamy dark brown head. The aroma is sweet black licorice and yeast with black patent malts. The flavor is black patent malt with licorice and some heavy yeasts. The palate is difficult to drink. Very charred.

Big ol’ 2009 bottle. Poured near-black with a gigantic cap of dark tan head. The aroma picked up rich molasses and dry-roasted dark chocolates topped by vanilla and some earth.. very well charred. The flavor was not so good.. charred black patent malts and molasses again at the core with coffee and earthy bitterness around.. depth and complexity were most assuredly lacking, and there was prickly, sharp carbonation all over the place. Medium-bodied on the palate, but very tough to drink with the carbonation.. I could do without drinking this again.

1L bottle shared by Tom, thanks: Basically opaque with a huge initial head and spotty lace. The aroma has heavy toasted malt but also smells oxidized and papery with a hint of band-aid. Some prune, oak, vanilla is noticed as well. The taste is fruity and malty, marzipan and ashy wood character before the twangy acidic sourness . The mouth feel is soft and lush, dry finish. Going downhill quickly and turning acidic. Too bad.

1L swingtop. Thanks RiversideAK! Pours opaque black with a thin tan head. Chocolate and oak aroma. Medium body and carb. Lightly astringent vanilla taste. The taste just doesn’t come off right somehow. Dry, bourbon-edged finish.

1L bottle from cdog69. Opaque black with a rich brown fudgey head. Big rich bourbon nose with some vanilla. The flavor got tired of waiting to be drank, so it just left. Not really all that good.

1L fliptop courtesy of Beerman6686 poured into a snifter. Pours pitch black with no light penetrating the body with a huge fluffy mocha head that recedes slowly to a small collar, leaving some delicate lacing on the sides. Gorgeous beer. The aroma is full of dark roasted chocolate malts, lots of dry cocoa as well. There is hardly a hint of bourbon in the nose but it’s really all about the deeply roasted chocolate malts. The taste is more of the same, fairly one-dimensional, with the massively toasted (almost burnt) malts dominating. There is semi-sweet bakers chocolate and a dry oaky finish. Again, not much in the way of bourbon in the taste. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and very dry for the style with the baker chocolate, burnt malts and oak all contributing to that feel. This is a good stout, though I would say it’s a bit too dry, almost chalky, which keeps it from being a great beer. Still, I’m yet to be disappointed by East End.

Apparently I had this @ Beerlando’s throwdown. Black color with a thin even dark tan head. Heavy roast, chalk, lacto, cocoa on the aroma. Mild roasty taste, straightforward but solid.

Thick black. dry Flatish. Some roastiness, but otherwise low in flavor. At toncatcher’s tasting.

Time to catch up before BCTC. Bottle shared by someone at Spuyten Duyvil big beer fest. Thanks! Black with brown head and alce. Coffee and wood aroma. Coffee wood chocolate dark fruit and dry finish. Excellent.

Big-ass quart of beer from corby112 - thanks, Craig! Loved the Black Strap when I had a growler of that last year, and there was something about the combination of super creamy mouthfeel and assertive roasts that was so delightful. I have to say that this one’s just short of the mark, although still quite nice. While the barrel is quite subtle here, thankfully, some of the additional flavors (chocolate, slight cream) have been pushed to the margins, leaving just black coffee. I love me some face-wrecking coffee, so I’m good with that; but it could use a little more depth. Mouthfeel, too, wasn’t as full and sumptuous as I was anticipating (or remembering from the original) either. So overall, still pretty damn good but not quite what it could have been.