Southern Tier Jah-va

Bottle - pours black with a very light tan head that skims off quickly..you can tell right from the pour that this is one thick brew. Aroma of booze, bittersweet chocolates, roasted grains and coffee. Flavor is sweet and syrupy right up front to the point of overwhelming, hints of anise and coffee then the alcohol takes over. As the glass warms, the bittersweet chocolate, anise and coffee flavors come out more. Thick chewy mouthfeel.

Re-rate, Apr 08: Draft at SL experience was pretty nice, ratcheting this thing up a bit more, the coffee more round and pleasantly the highlight without being dominating like in the Peche. However, a few weeks later in a horizontal (both the 07 and 08 vintages) alongside Peche Mortel and KBS, this thing just wasn’t big enough to compete. The milky chocolate notes underneath detract from an otherwise nice beer. This thing needs more coffee, less sweetness, and less milky softness to be great. A nice brew, nonetheless (07 was sweeter than the 08, a tad more full too). Re-rate, Mar 08, new bottling: Unfortunately, this thing wasn’t even close to the original bottle I had. Floral hoppy aromas and flavors were present, the coffee was way tamer than before. On the positive side, it was less stickyi sweet than before. Just another ordinary average impy stout this time around. I knew there was a hop shortage (change in hops?), but is there also a coffee shortage right now? Rating drops as an average of the two experiences. Original rating: Bottle courtesy doulos31/Goodgrief. Poured a dark black color, nice initial head, just love to watch that slowly separate out from a big black stout like this. Tan in color, great retention, very regenerable with a swirl or two, decent hidden carbonation. The aroma was roasted sweet coffee. The flavor was lightly bittered strong coffee, sweet malts, sweet caramel also present. The 125IBU’s barely made a showing, then only after warming and with a light piney-ness. The mouthfeel was full, yet not sticky, yet a tad too sweet. This was a fairly nice rendition of Peche Mortel, although the latter is clearly superior, due to this beer’s detectable caramel-y sweetness. Thanks, Tom, for scoring this one, a very fine beer.

Draft- black motor oil like color and consistency, small tan head, some coffee aroma, but a good bit of malt/smoked aroma as well. Tastes extremely tart at first, which kind of mellowed after a while. Coffee flavor is there, but I found the brew pretty boozy. The mouthfeel was a little thin.

Pours a black color with a dark brown head. Aroma is huge of coffee, with roasted malts, chocolate, a little molasses, caramel, and a slight hint of a hop character and some alcohol warming. Very thick on the palate with the coffee coming through very strong. Chocolate and molasses underneath the coffee tones. A pretty bitter finish on this one, I would have to say more bitter then any stout I’ve ever had, but I really enjoyed it. I don’t usually like the overly coffee flavored stouts but this one is pretty delicious.

Poured a deep, opaque, oily black with a fast fading tan head. Smells of roasted malt, grain, chocolate and a hint of coffee, but not too much. Initial flavor is rather mixed, very oily and spicy on the tongue with heavy alcohol and also bitter. Finish is really good though, transforms on the tongue. Starts out with a heavy coffee flavor but then transitions into the strong, grainy, imperial stout flavor that one would expect. Tough call with these specialty beers, but this is worth a look.

I love this beer and have just never rated it til now. I wanted to rate it when I first poured it cuz it wasn’t tasting right to me, it was because it was way too cold. Make sure you drink this at close to room temp. When it was cold it lost so much of the java, coffee and chocolateness, this beer is great because it has a real coffee bean flavor more than brewed coffee, it is thick, complex and in your face...make sure the temperature is right though I ruined the first half of this beer

bottle...rating from memory...appearance: dark, thick, black pour with nice light brown head...aroma: roasted malts, coffee, and strong on the chocolate...taste: more of the same with quite a bit of sweetness to it....i very much enjoyed this one.

Dark black pour with a muddy colored froth on top. Aroma is coffee, chocolate, roasted malts, barley... very sweet, almost smells like a Starbucks Frappucino or something. Taste is very sweet and malty up front but with a ridiculously long roasted coffee flavor. Slight amount of alcohol present in the nose and flavor, just the right amount! I’d love to try this side by side Founders Breakfast Stout, I feel this one would be a little bit more intense.