Town Hall Coffee Stout

Having already tried the Town Hall H2O Oatmeal Stout, which I found very coffee dominated, I was wondering what to expect from this one. In fact, I found it very similar to the H2O - certainly not significantly more coffee accented. Another respectable beer, that didn’t quite set the taste buds afire. From growler at the DC gathering.

Tasted from Growler. Poured a dark, dark black color with an averaged sized off white head. Main aroma and tastes of coffee. Dark chocolate, roasted malts and some dark fruits as well. This one was all about the coffee but not in a bad way.

GABF 2005: Deep brown hue with a very good lace. The aroma is coffee, prune, raisin, chocolate and earthy esters. The taste was really sort of the standard stuff, mocha and caramel followed by bitter coffee and grassy hops with a hint of ripe fruit. It is not all that and I am shocked with the high rating of this beer.

Big thanks to Davo for bringing a growler of this to the Heavyweight Open House in May ’05. It was the best beer of the day (IMHO). Oily black with a thick, tan head. Rich roasted aromas of espresso and malt. Taste is silky smooth with flavors of cocoa, coffee and cream. Balanced perfectly.

Cask. Pitch black color with a big, foamy tan head. Nice waterfall of brown while the pint settles. Very subtle coffee aroma, but the taste is anything but subtle. Now I’ve had coffee stouts and porters before that taste basically like cold espresso, but this had more of a light roast taste. It wasn’t a pitch black coffee, but much more on the light end of the spectrum. So although the coffee flavor was intense, it was much lighter than anticipated. Unfortunately, it seemed to cover up any malt, hop, chocolate, or any other flavor. It’s still good and far above average, but not great because it’s very one dimensional.