 duff (5403), Sydney, Australia, Surrey, England
Jan 29, 2008
Bottle (with many props to HogTownHarry). Way too sweet and alcoholic for me. Has an overly sticky jammy, marmitey flavour, soy saucey. I actually thought there was less coffee than i was expecting from a coffee stout, especially one this strong. The stickyness kills everything else. Not very fun to drink.
Ibrew2or3 (1596), Safety Harbor, Florida, USA
Jul 17, 2008 Courtesy of Gillard. Pours deep dark with thin mocha head. The aroma is the obvious label stated coffee, some chocolate, a bit of prunes and caramel. The taste is rich maltiness consisting of dark roasted malts, caramel and chocolate. The coffee comes in near midway and builds some toward the finish. It isn’t the usual Folgers coffee type grains but more a quality brand of rich dark roasty French Roast. In the finish I get a mild warming sensation from the alcohol. Another amazing brew from these fine people.
Hawksfan17 (588), Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA
Jul 15, 2008 Pours black with a tan head. Smells of chocolate and coffee. Tastes like a mocha cappuccino. It is the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. Very smooth and bitter finish.
daknole (514), Plantation, Florida, USA
Jul 12, 2008 Bottle from funknmilla. great great beer. pours black with a nice tan head. Aromas is(shocker)coffee and chocolate, nice dark chocolate. Flavor is perfectly balanced between chocolate, coffee, and some nice hop on the end. I loved this beer.
Sparky27 (413), Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Jul 11, 2008 Bomber courtesy of GMCC2181. Pours a deep space black with 2 finger tan head. Nose is coffee (duh), dark chocolate and ash. Taste is heavy coffee and dark chocolate with a bitter hop finish. Full chewy creamy mouth feel. Tastes like Starbucks bold coffee of the day with a shot of chocolate, and daddy likes him some strong Starbucks Joe. Thanks D O Double Gizzle G-Dawg!
ChainGangGuy (1444), Kennesaw, Georgia, USA
Jul 10, 2008 2005 versus 2008... go!
Appearance: The older brew has an oily, inky black body with a brief, tan-colored head. The new brew comes up lighter with a dark brown, reddish-hinted appearance and a thin, off-white head.
Smell: The vintage Jah-va displays a rich, dark maltiness smelling of semi-sweet chocolate and roastiness, much like a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans. The current rendition, however, well, there is a dark malt presence along with embarassingly minor hints of chocolate and roast, but that’s about it. This is a disturbing trend we have here, it’s like the entire heart of the recipe was woefully watered down between 2005 and today. Pity.
Taste: Wonderfully roasty and sumptuously sweet, like a dessert featuring coffee and chocolate. A few drops of cherry liqueur. There’s a very light hint of roasty bitterness and a touch of alochol. Sugar dosed coffee lingers beyond the finish. That was the ’05, let’s see what the ’08 can come up with. Some dark maltiness, but only a light taste of chocolate, and almost no coffee. Again, some light bitterness and alcohol. Taste of burnt grains on the bittersweet finish. Yeesh.
Mouthfeel: The 2005 has a rich, medium-full body and medium-low carbonation, it’s up-to-date counterpart, again, comes up a bit lacking with a lighter body.
Drinkability: The antique Southern Tier Jah-va was very, very good. The newer rendition came up far, far short, and I don’t see any amount of time metamorphosing it into something better. For the review, I’ll average out the two scores. So, I recommend getting your hands on an older bottle or not at all.
|
