Southampton Espresso Stout

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Stout
Southampton, New York USA

Tap at SPH. Pitch black with a thick tan head. Served way too cold (why can’t they adjust their temps up to 12 or so?). Big coffee aroma, a bit of toffee and roast in back. Flavour is sweet up front followed by loads of coffee flavour. None of the vegetal character that some coffee beers have, just dark, fresh, coffee up front followed by a roasted barley finish. No astringency or huskiness. As it warms some sweeter maltiness come forward bringing a bit of balance. It has a bit more coffee than I prefer, but it’s very well-made.

Tap at Hop Devil Grill. Rich black with a dark brown head. Aroma is rich, burnt espresso, chocolate and vanilla. Taste isn’t burnt but more smooth and dry. A bit thinner in body then the aroma leads you to think it will be. The taste is silky smooth with a very mellow hop bitterness.

On tap at Hop Devil Grill. Deep dark brown in color with a dark tan head that dissipated. Strong coffee aroma. Lots of espresso. Roasty chocolatety notes. Malty and roasty coffee flavor. Bittersweet chocolate notes. Finish is dry. Full bodied. Well balanced. Clean tasting. Smooth and creamy. Very nice. Enjoyable.

Draft: Deep chestnut. Frothy beige foam clings like a champ. Vibrant espresso bean aroma with hints of roasted malt, smoke, charcoal, and chocolate fudge. Thin and watery on the palate. Flavors unveil an early edge of acidity coupled with a sharp, metallic roastiness. Rich and gritty espresso helps sustain the body, but there’s not a lot of chewy malt depth or body-lending sweetness to overcome the increasing airiness. Char tingles the palate, but, as a result, the richer roast elements never fully adhere to the palate. Very wet and grainy. Finishes with a burnt cookie and dry/chalky char character, along with suggestive notes of unripe plums and soggy grains. Aside from the pleasant, albeit fairly one-dimensional, aroma, the flavor is overly grainy and the malt depth is severely lacking. It’s also too clean for its own good. A bit of a disappointment.

Growler. Dark black pour with dark tan head that didn’t stick around. The nose is filled with strong, black coffee — like opening a pouch of ground coffee. There are notes of roasted malts, hops, chocolate and a wiff of vanilla. The taste is mostly roasted malts and coffee with a bit of rubbery flavor. The finish is dry and bitter. Thin body with moderate carbonation. The bitter aftertaste sticks around for a little while.

Black as night pour with a mocha head that quickly recedes to a ring around the rim of the glass. The coffee really shines in the nose, lightly dusted with a baker’s chocolate note and some charred cookie. Thin body. Lots of dry, roasted malts spread over my tongue, albeit sparingly. Finishes long, dry and chalky with more coffee astringency. The body could definitely be beefed up to match the bold nose. This is really in dire need of a creamy, lush mouthfeel. I hate to say it, but this reminds me of watered down, cold coffee at times.

On tap at the Publick House. Pours black with a thin tan head. Superb aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Coffee comes through in the flavor too along with some light malt. I found this beer to be surprisingly smooth with very little bitterness from the coffee beans. Very enjoyable.

An extemely dry stout, with a very heavy dose of bitter, black, coffee/espresso, as the name implies. I was surprised at the lack of much else in this beer, though, and I’ve had many better-balanced coffee stouts previously. Slightly malty, no hop character. Very smooth but not creamy, and light.