Highland Black Mocha Stout

Brewed by Highland Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Asheville, North Carolina USA

Pours a dark brown, almost black, with a huge, frothy tan head. Mmmm, wonderful mocha aroma - the coffee and chocolate are very strong along with hints a toffee, hazelnut, caramel, molasses, and grassy hops. The flavor wasn’t nearly as impressive as the aroma. It’s not sweet at all, just has a sour bitterness to it that leaves a skunkness lingering in the mouth. It’s too earthy of a flavor, and possibly the worst finish to a beer I’ve tasted in a long time. Overall I was very dissapointed in the quality of this beer. It’s a shame - Highland’s Oatmeal Stout is so much better.

Middling chocolate aroma with faint anise. Thin reddish brown pour with a beige head. Body starts thin but builds as it warms - fairly lifeless. Toffee and chocolate in the flavor, some hops of the pineapple strain, with some dough and tongue coating malts. A touch of some unpleasant sourness knocks this down a few pegs. Actually a bit disappointing.

Habersham Beverage Warehouse, Savannah, Ga. - 22 oz bomber. Dark, ruby red pour, little to no head. Strong, prominent aroma wth coffee and licorice shining through the most. Flavor has the same elements with some dark, baker’s chocolate thrown in there for good measure. Very earthy and quaffable. Decently thick mouthfeel. Like what I see from this brewer thus far.

Clear dark brown body. Sweet chocolate milk aroma. Dry earthy chocolate flavo riwht apple and baker’s chocolate in teh finish. Decent stuff.

MN Ratebeer Winter Get-together. Sweet molasses aroma with hints of caramel, milk and chocolate. Mostly opaque body with some dark red hues when held to the light at the bottom of the glass. Not bad. Can’t tell what this tastes like. Very nice. Nice buttery caramel at finish. A very nice beer.

Bottled. Poured a murky, deep brown with a tall, thick, long-lasting deep beige head. Nose was of mild chocolate, a bit of toffee, coffee, and molasses. Flavor was quite similar, and managed to be grainy and sticky toward the back-end. Smooth across the middle of the palate... medium-bodied. Finish found mocha and tannins. Interesting and enjoyable stout!

Pours to a dark brown body with a thin white head. The aroma is chocolate and coffee. Light oatmeal. The flavor is light coffee and chocolate. The palate is medium bodied.

(22 oz. bottle via trade with <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?UserID=1 target=blank>beeryum, thanks Dave!) Dark brown with a thick khaki head. Aroma is coffee, some chocolate, touch of vanilla. Some sloppy lacing. Mouthfeel fairly smooth but somewhat watery. Flavor is mostly coffee and some chocolate, but on the weak side and not much for roastiness. I can live with that, but there is also a grassiness and a sort of sourishness/objectionableness in finish that kind of wrecked it.