Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Lakewood, New York USA

On tap at the Peekskill Brewery. Pours a deep dark black with a thin tan head. Remarkably sweet aromas of caramel, toffee, and burning sugar. As described by my partner “It’s like I’m drinking candy, but in a good way”. Thick body, cookies, chocolate, sweet burnt sugar overtones. Finishes with a redeeming nice long bitterness. Very much over the top, as are the other stouts in this series, but this one is the biggest offender. Cloying probably past drinkable, unlike say the choklat which is also rather sweet but has some character to it. This is however good for what it is – a novelty beer. Something to buy a bomber of and share with a dinner party as an after dinner drink…because there’s no way I could finish a bomber of this alone. It was tough enough putting away my 3 ounce sample. On a side note, we did try a small blend of this and Abita’s Purple Haze (which is not so great in it’s own right). Together they came out pretty nice, with the watered down wheat and fruit from the Purple Haze cutting some of the sugar here and pairing up nicely with the caramel and vanilla.

Aroma is a beautiful mix of vanilla, butterscotch, creme brulee, and cookie dough. Pours a dark red/black with a good size head. Taste is another beast however. Its a sweet cloying mess of flavors...typical artificial flavors of Southern Tier. Thae others in the Blackwater series are pretty damn good...this however isnt. Its just flat out too damn sweet for me. Strong mix of the aforementioned aromas in the palate. Good texture, and the bigger the drink, the less of a mess it is, but still. I smelled this for about five minutes, and the first sip about made me gag. Definitely dont let this warm up....it becomes indiscernable.

Pours black with a 2 finger chunky beige head that has poor retention. Aroma is butterscotch, vanilla, coffee and a little chcolate. No part of this smells like a beer. Flavor is chocolate, coffee, aspartame, butterscotch, caramel, buttery toffee, milky sweetness, chocolate chip cookie dough and hazelnut syrup. Some asprin and coffee to the finish along with the super sweet vanilla laden fade. Palate is medium to thick bodied with a light carbonation, a bit of alcohol warmth and a slick, syrupy feel throughout. I really didn’t like this stuff, this doesn’t have many "beer like" qualities at all. To me this really seems to be just a sloppy under attenuated impy stout augmented with tons of un-fermented lactose and vanilla. Southern Tier seems to get alot of love for this stuff, I can see why alot of people might like it but I do not. When price is taken into account, this might be one of the biggest ripoffs in beer for me.

Bottle. Bold Aroma notes of caramel coffee and chocolate. Finished very similar to the aroma but began with a maltier flavor.

Bottle. Pours black with a small brown head. Aroma is quite sweet, otes of caramel, sweet coffee and white/milk chocolate. Flavor begins dark with a dark malty flavor but ends much sweeter, bring back the flavors of the aroma. Definitely different than your typical imperial stout but for the most part I enjoyed it.

Bu en fut (11 oz) au Roadhouse BBQ à Brookline au Massachusetts, le 11 juillet 2009. Noir... tu sais, mini collet. Arome de caramel anglais et vanille très sucré et intense. Goût pas mal la même chose, avec une touche licoreux, bonne amèrturme. Totalement cochon, c’est de l’intensité à son meilleur!

Aroma has roasted vanilla beans pretty prevalent. The body is medium, certainly not as dark as many other imperial stouts. The taste is fairly simple but nonetheless enjoyable. The taste of vanilla beans and caramel certainly make this taste like a crem brulee. The lack of complexity in terms of taste keeps this from being an exemplary imperial stout.

Tap @ Rattle’N’Hum. Dark pour with nice head. Caramel/Butterscotch aroma is nice. Flavor is way too sweet not a fan of this. No chance i could finish an entire pint. Only redeeming qualities are 10% and girls who don’t like beer might like it.