Big River Grille Espresso Stout

Brewed by Big River Grille & Brewing Works Chattanooga (Gordon Biersch)
Style: Sweet Stout
Chattanooga, Tennessee USA

On tap at Disney’s Boardwalk. Pours black and thick with a dark chocolate head. Nice chocolate, roasted malt coffee aroma. Thick roasted malt coffee taste. Finishes with a clean dry roasted aftertaste.

Date: 09/10/2005
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Chattanooga

in conjunction with stone cup roasting co using the dutch flowers blend at one fluid oz per pint, black, scant tan head, big roasted coffee aroma, thin body, big roasted coffee flavor, more coffee than anything, good for a cup of coffee
-------- /> Date: 02/25/2006
Source: blind coffee stout tasting

dark ruby, frothy beige head, sweet malt aroma with a nice coffee character, good coffee flavor, nice bitterness, hint of ash, a bit thin, touch of chocolate

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

Growler. Poured a very dark brown color witha ruby tint and a small tan head. The aroma was fruity with coffee and light ash. Coffe flavored with roasty malt. Some tartness like you sometimes get with coffee. Dry bitter finish. Light to medium bodied.

Growler. Opaque brown with small head. Bitter coffee aromas, with some sweet cola chocolate notes. Sweet chocolate malt flavors, with coffee. Thin and watery unfortunately, which was the big killer for me.

One of my first coffee stouts. And it’s actually made with espresso, not coffee, from a local coffee shop in Chattanooga. Looks black with just a little bit of light shining through, not completely opaque. Smell is of roasted espresso(coffee) and chocolate, hops are barely detectable. Taste has a lot of espresso in the front of it with chocolate and malty goodness going on. Really good taste. Lots of roasted qualities. Moutfeel is definitely thin for this, especially for a stout, but it’s not weightless, just needs some more body. Even though the mouthfeel is lacking, I drank about 6 of these in a night and could have had more. I love coffee stouts. So if you don’t like coffee or espresso, stay away, but otherwise, this a good choice.

Growler sample: Pours a barely transparent dark mahogany brown with a thin light-tan head. Fresh piney hoppy aroma has good chocolate and roasty presence with a touch of coffee. Starts with a thinner, lightly sweet palate with a watery mildly roasted finish. Could use a little more body, but otherwise a nice sweet stout.

Draught at 11th Southern Brewers Festival in Chattanooga. Pours black with caramel brown hints at the extreme edges of the beer where light begs to pass through. Dark roasted coffee bean aroma hits you like a freshly roasted cup of coffee and then some sweet caramel malt notes pass by your nose long enough to doubt that coffee is the only ingredient. Carbonated coffee flavor is well balanced with a caramel to toffee flavor and very low acidity. Dark and thin, almost watery palate, silky smooth.

Draft sample at the Southern Brewers Festival (9/05). It actually took me a while to find this brew in the data base. I almost reentered it under another name. At any rate, this beer is supposedly brewed with coffee from the Stone Cup Roasting Company. Pours a dark brown with minimal head, clear. The aroma is nutty, malty, and heavy on the coffee/espresso notes. The flavor is (duh) coffee! Quite heavy on the coffee actually. There is also what I will describe as a toffee-ish character but mostly a roasted malt presence and a light sweetness. The body is light-medium but crisp, just like you might describe an iced coffee. Really not a bad brew, but I found my self thinking that I could not drink too much of it.