Liberal Cup Tarbox Cream Stout

Brewed by Liberal Cup Public House and Brewery
Style: Stout
Hallowell, Maine USA

Serve in English pint

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(Draft@brewpub) Pours dark tobacco/coffee color with a perfect-looking tight tan head that holds steady. Aroma of roasted grain, coffee, chocolate. Great lacing, nice cascading rings as you work your way down. Smooth mouthfeel, creamy - may be a bit watery but probably to style. Also slightly dry. The flavor is impressive - molasses, roastiness, coffee, bittersweet chocolate - really full of flavor. Some bitterness at finish. Wow, this was good.

on nitro-pours a retaining tight foamy tan head and black color. Aroma is rich dark malt-chocolate. Taste is dry, rich dark malt-chocolate/molasses/coffee, some earthy hops. Not my taste but nicely done.

(presumably nitro) Persistent creamy brown head atop black body. Aroma is medium sweet, chocolate, some coffee, light roast. Taste is medium sweet, coffee, roast, light chocolate. Light coffee bitterness. Creamy light-medium body.

Aroma:sweet chocolate aroma,coffe... Appearance:Dark,good cream brown head... Flavor:sweet coffe and chocolate,creamy...

This, along with the Alewife Ale, was the best of the beers I tried there. Black body with consistent tan head. Mocha scent. Tastes very chocolately. While on the heavier side of medium bodied, it is definitely not quite as heavy as many stouts. Tastes similar to Samuel Adams chocolate bock in some ways, but definitely more tasty and richer. Good stuff. I’ll definitely be getting this one again. I realise I’m in the minority on this one, but I really liked it.

20oz Liberal Cup at the pub. Pours exactly like a guiness. Mouthfeel is the same, flavors are more along the lines of shipyard blue fin. It’s soy-ish in the nose with sweetness. The flavor is creamy smooth and mildly good, but nothing to write home about. One of those not stout tasting stouts that’s just black and creamy.

Nitro pint at Brewpub. Pours a dark color with a creamy nitro tan head. Nose is lightly chocolate with roast malts and coffee. Taste is buttery cream, with some light coffee notes and roast malts here as well. Palate is creamy, smooth nitro.

Nitro half-pint at the brewpub on 4/14/06
Deep cocoa-milk chocolate brown body is covered by a nitrogenated tan head that is well-retained without lacing. Body is cloudy, opaque, unfiltered.
Aroma is oddly peppery, as if light DMS is mixed amongst the soggy, chocolate malts. Peanut skins and light vanilla notes are all the limpid aroma can garner, as the rancid, peppery vegetal note mixes with dry, unadulterated, acrid roast. Very weak overall.
Watery buttercream and weak coffee notes open up the flavor as damp, moldy and spicy DMS or autolysis notes (can’t figure out what the problem is amidst the roast and heavy wateriness) ruin any balance of flavor. Extremely lacking in flavor, with a heavily watery, nitrogenated texture, light burnt caramel and acrid roast notes seem odd against all this water. No hops, no alcohol, huge bubbled, low carbonation. More like a heavily watered down pot of coffee that has sat on a burner all day.

On tap at the brewpub:
Mild, creamy coffee sweetness dwelling in a lifeless body...Roasted malts become burnt and clash with the yeast end...Not enough time in secondary?...

(Draught) Sampled at the brewpub in Hollowell, ME. Pours opaque with a thin, foamy almond head. The nose is mildly of roasted malt. The flavour thin and fairly mild with tones of coffee. Water, water everywhere - but nowhere for a decent brew!