Lost Coast 8 Ball Stout

Brewed by Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe
Style: Sweet Stout
Eureka, California USA

Sample at July 17, 2009 Beer Club meeting. Standard stout appearance. Light roasted malt aroma... so roasted it reminds me of chocolate and coffee. Flavor of... asparagus? There’s that BO flavor again... what IS that flavor that is so reminiscent of body odor??? Good, but not exceptional.

Not too strong of odor or too much carmonation. Very smooth and creamy, could have a few in a night. This beer makes up for a complete lack of ’bam’ with it’s smooth drinkability. The aftertaste is sweet for a stout.

I had first rated this beer as low as it could go. I thought it was horrible. My review was apparently so bad the system decided to chuck it. I stopped smoking a week ago and decided to retry. It still didn’t smell all that flavorful...it was still dark and thin, but I could taste some of the dark chocolate and coffee and malt this time around. I got NO oatmeal, so that was still disappointing. Not my favorite beer, not the worst. Reminiscent of Rasputin Imperial Stout. Also not a favorite for some reason. So, don’t be angry. This score is better than the 0.2 I think it was last week.

Pours black-surprisingly you can not see much light through this. Aroma of roasted malt with a nice creamy taste. A very good stout even though I thought this should be classified as a stout & not a sweet stout.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a thin mocha head of good duration, over a clear blackish brown (SRM 35) body......nose of coffee, chocolate, bit of molasses.....tastes is primarily rich roasted malt (coffee, cocoa, bit of molasses), some oat, with hoppy medium bitter finish......mouth feel is thick and creamy, carbonation medium. A fairly typical, well done, oatmeal type stout.

Not much aroma - copper maybe? Aroma not so pleasant. Appearance is thick, dark dark brown to almost black, with little head, but rich looking, full of chocolate and coffee tones and vitamins. Nice. Robust and full-bodied, tasting roasted. Don’t really taste hops here so much. Nice. My personal preference would be for a slightly smoother, creamier stout, but this is still good in its crispness.

Poured out a foamy medium brown head that fizzled down to a thick ring and light surface cover on top of a "close as you can get to black without being black" brew. Pretty good aroma overall with noticeable dark roast, dark chocolate malts and coffee (not a dominant presence). The taste revolves around the dark roasted malts with chocolate, coffee, toffee and an interesting mix of hops along with cherries. Full bodied, quiet carbonation and quite smooth and silky. The aftertaste is pretty much the same as the taste along with a bitter finish that linger forever. The cherry flavour seems to subdue the coffee flavour especially after my brew was quite warm. This beer really grew on me especially after my first impression, which was less than impressive. 8 Ball has some qualities that I am usually not a huge fan of but Lost Coast puts it all together in this beer. Highly drinkable. update, 4 days later. just drank one and was fairly unimpressed. a re-review is a must. Seems like your typical west coast USA stout today... just a teeny bit better.

Pours black, almost no head. aroma is very sweet and oats dominate the nose. some chocolate and coffee flavour, very sweet, light smooth. only okay.