 wilderthanyou (309), Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Jan 7, 2008
Pours a dark dark brown, with a beige, lightly sticky head. The aroma is sweet, with some notes of apples, dark chocolate and licorice. Flavours of chocolate, fruit, a bit of malt toffee sweetness in the middle, and a pleasant licorice finish. A little thin on the mouthfeel, but not bad over all. A tasty brew. Surprised at the low average.
shigadeyo (1369), Southwest Ohio Area, Ohio, USA
Aug 26, 2008 Updated: Aug 28, 2008
8/26/2008: I received this from my wife in my Christmas stocking last year and decided to hold on to it for awhile. What better time to finally enjoy it as I sit here watching my wife do some prep work for my birthday dinner with her family tomorrow night... Lump of Coal Dark Holiday Stout pours clear brown and has ruby hues. The head is dense, frothy, and light tan in color. A sweet and strong aroma wafts from the glass carrying with it notes of semi-sweet chocolate, toffee, some dark fruits (kind of like fruit cake). The flavor is rich and delivers lots of semi-sweet and dark cholocate, roasted malts, light molasses, and prune to the tastebuds. There is a mild level of dark/bitter chcolate in the finish. This beer is really smooth on the palate and has a medium-full body. I’m actually surprised by the tasty blend of flavors and how easily this beer slips down. It is flavorful, but almost too easy to drink quickly! Happy Holidays (8-months belated)!
50 cl/1 pt 9 fl. oz bottle (Alc 8% Vol.) from my wife. Thanks babe! Rating #329 for this beer...
lghansen (24), Denmark
Aug 24, 2008 Dark and creamy, subdued aroma, slightly sweet and very malty taste, followed by a moderately bitter aftertaste.
GarrettB (410), Seattle, Washington, USA
Aug 1, 2008 There’s a bit of irony here, because the bad kid gets a lump of coal, but the Lump of Coal isn’t all that bad. It is a bottle packed with heavy flavors - deep and oozing, though certainly not complex, with enough alcoholic warmth to keep the white Christmas winter outside the window where it belongs; decoration, not refrigeration. The Lump of Coal produces little head, and the beer backs this up with its cadaver stillness and swampy, inactive liquid. But the scent is alluring, especially for Christmas time, gifting the drinker with a thick aromatic paste of licorice, raisins, plums, honey, sweet coffee and toffee hazelnut in a deep and dulcet overture to Christmas goodies. The smell is so thick and so rich, I might as well be snorting syrup. The flavor leads with a front font of deep coffee, with the raw vegetal quality of the beans intact. Most of the other pools of sugary sweets have been staid, left behind in the aroma, but the flavor does carry the deep honey. Still, I miss the particularly deep taste of plums, raisins and licorice which made the aroma such a dinstuished Christmas beer. Instead, we get a heavy dose of alcohol, weighing sharply on the tongue and the head. No wonder Santa’s cheeks are always red. The Lump of Coal is drinkable, but leans too heavily on the coffee malts and booze in the taste, rather than borrowing some of what makes its aroma so relevantly great. Not a bad beer to find in your stocking.
liinis (393), Finland
Jun 19, 2008 Black with beige head. Damn good full bodied delicious liquorice and roasted malts coffee chocolate and some sweet fuit. very very very good
BlackDonald (1040), North Carolina, USA
May 19, 2008 This really isn’t too bad. Not fantastic by any streatch of the word, but actually quite drinkable. Has some fruitcake and chocolate in the nose, with some dried red fruits in the flavor along with some roasted malts. The downside is that the mouthfeel is quite thin, and has a finish that drops right off the radar, but initially some nice flavors, they just don’t stick around long.
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