“It’s so great that you like coffee. I just love that about you. Speaking of which, you’re holding an oatmeal coffee stout positively redolent with coffee aroma and flavor. It kind of tastes like a chocolate-covered espresso bean, only drier and more like beer. Nifty fact: we’re one of the only breweries in the world to roast our own coffee, which allows us to be extremely persnickety about which beans we buy and how we roast them. Taste the persnicketiness!”
Glassware: Tulip.
Appearance: Glossy black with a finger of light brown foam assembling on top. Reduction is swift and eventually it retreats to the rim. Healthy lace despite the lack of retention.
Aroma: We probably sound like a broken record but we LOVE COFFEE! So when we see a coffee stout brewed by one of San Diego’s finest we don’t hesitate! A twirl of the glass awakens that glorious coffee aroma along with cocoa, bakers chocolate, porridge, toast, lightly roasted barley and lactose. Maybe a flutter of molasses and nutty malt as well. Damn fine aroma.
Flavour: In short? MIA! It’s almost a completely different beer! All of that gorgeous coffee, chocolate and porridge has been watered down and is nothing but a shadow of the aroma. In its defence all of the flavours are here but they’re just weak as water. And it’s like this from start to finish. Gaahh!
Mouthfeel: Thin and slippery…no grip whatsoever. Only 5.8% ABV so it is in session territory. Far too lean for a stout though.
Overall: Such a shame. To inhale that dreamy aroma and then get let down so bad by the flavour makes us want to cry. That’s a rare strike out for MT.