River Market 8-Ball Cream Stout

Another poorly made dark beer form this strange brewer. Again, I figure usually a subpar brewery will at least have a drinkable stout. I would rather have another of the decent brown than this mess. The body was black with a yellowish khaki head. The aroma is milk chocolate with a little bit of light coffee. The taste had cheap Folger’s Coffee with some dark chocolate. There was a yummy ashtray finish. I couldn’t even finish a sampler glass.

This was just about undrinkable for me, having a siginfigant lactose intolerance. Way too sweet, with that milky sweetness that only lactose can bring to the table. Some nice roastiness, but it comes across tasting like when you put too much cream and sugar in your coffee, and becomes way too unbalanced to enjoy either way.

On tap at the brewpub. Black in color with an off-white head. Heavy amounts of lactose. The body is lighter than I would like to see. It is not creamy at all with the sweetness unbalanced. It does have a pleasant roasted aroma and flavor. No smoked flavor.

Eh. Nothing special. Good looking beer, not very flavorful and what flavor it did have wasn’t that tasty. Tasted flatter/less carbonated than most stouts.

Served on nitrogen. Sweet, roasty aroma, some dark brown sugar, faint lactose and coffee. Dark brown color, clear, with a standard nitro-style creamy, light tan head. Mild roasty maltiness up front, developing some chocolate and becoming a bit drier towards the finish, which also features some caramel and very faint hoppiness. Light overall bitterness, some balance is achieved between the roastiness and chocolatey sweetness. Creamy, smooth, completey uncarbonated mouthfeel, light-medium bodied. Decent, certainly above average for a nitrogenated stout.