Evil Twin Brewing ‘Irish-ish’ Coffee Stout

Rating:

38665667_921779991339480_3256103668755202048_n“This massive winter warmer is brewed with lactose, demerara sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, medium toasted oak spirals and – of course – a ton of delicious coffee from our friends at @tandemcoffeeroasters.”

Glassware: Tulip.

Appearance: Dense black with a thumb of reasonably well retained foam capping it off. It leaves a fine spotty lace clinging to the glass.

Aroma: Quite unique we must admit. It’s not the super rich and boozy nose we were anticipating it’s actually rather light and sweet with a heady dose of earthy spice and what we can best describe as piney hops. Lactose, vanilla and marshmallow makes up a fair chunk of the sweetness with just a touch of caramel and coffee to fill it out. Can’t say that were fans at the moment.

Flavour: Acting a bit more like an Irish coffee. Subtle coffee roast, crystallised sugars and what would appear to be the sweet and somewhat fruity Irish whiskey (cue those piney hops on the nose!). The booze starts to warm up around the mid, backed up by earthy spice and more coffee. Charred malts and a more bitter espresso note picks up and rolls in to the dry, toasty and semi sweet finish which endures nicely.

Mouthfeel: Silky, warming and kind of dense. Low Co2, medium-full body. 10.3% AbV – fairly well behaved.

Overall: It’s a good enough offering but it’s just a tad uninspiring. Back in our day we used to get stuck in to the Irish coffee post Anzac Day commemorations and ours didn’t taste anything like this. Maybe we weren’t making them properly! Nevertheless it’s nothing to write home about.