Lakefront Fuel Cafe

Brewed by Lakefront Brewery
Style: Sweet Stout
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Bottle. Pours translucent blackish brown with a frothy and dissipating lacy tan head. Light aroma with some coffee and chocolate, but absent the smell of ’brewed coffee’ normally found in coffee stouts. Light body, full carbonation. Taste of soy sauce, coffee and and just a dash of gasoline. Seriously, WTF?

A Sim rate (bottle from American Beer Distributors, Brooklyn, NY): Aroma gets a high score because it smells like coffee and I love coffee! It’s got a good mix of coffee and alcohol that makes me want to keep sniffing. Looks understandably opaque black but no head or lace. Slight letdown. Flavour is very roasty. Coffee and burnt toast. Ends quickly and not quite rich or deep enough. Palate is a complete letdown. Nothing stout about it. This could just as easily be water. Overall, I quite like it though. But then again, I am a java head!

12 oz from LifeSource,Salem OR Nice looking stout, very dark brown almost black but not quite, nice tan head. Aroma is fine, as expected, coffee and roasty malts. Sweet malty flavour, with a hint of nice dark coffee, some fruity aspects also. Plate is quite watery, really watery in fact even for a sub-5% beer. OK but coulda been better had they improved the palate.

I’m a big fan of coffee stouts, and in my opinion this beer is a great example. Roasted malts and coffee beans give a pleasant coffee house aroma. Flavor is roasted barley (for the stout) and definite coffee, almost a mocha taste. There is an odd sweet/bitter dichotomy happening in the beer that really makes it pleasant to consume. Not quite as robust in the mouthfeel dept as some stouts, Fuel Cafe is still a top notch offering in my book.

12 oz bottle. Black with a thin brown head. Lots of coffee in the nose, malty, lightly roasty. Coffee less pronounced in the flavor, but still strong, sweet malt and mild nuttiness. Body is thin and watery, it really detracts from the beer. Meh.

12oz brown bottle from The Lighthouse in Manchester as part of this brewery’s sampler 8-pack. Pours an opaque black body with a good inch of short-lived tan head. Smells roasty - like black coffee with dark chocolate notes. Tastes roasty and sweet, with strong coffee and chocolate notes. Full-bodied with ample carbonation, one sip definitely invites another. Nothing wrong with this brew - practically perfect coffee stout!

12oz bottle. Pours opaque with a small beige head. Brew had a faint coffee aroma with some burnt toffee. More coffee in the flavor, a light hop bite was present as well. Not the best stout.

Bottle: Deep brown pour with a thin tan head. The aroma has some barley roast, mild cocoa and stale/old coffee grinds. A bit thin in body, but slick and mildly carbonated. Flavor has some milk chocolate, cream and old coffee grinds- tastes like a cigarette was dropped into an old coffee. Not well integrated, but not the worst.