From Penticton BC’s Tin Whistle Brewing comes their “Extortionist Hazelnut Espresso Stout”. The beer pours a deep brown colour with a brown head. The aroma consists of espresso, chocolate, hazelnut, roasted malts and sweetness. The flavour is of big espresso notes, burnt malts, hazelnut, sweet toffee, chocolate and bitterness. The alcohol content comes in at 5.5% with an IBU of 35. This is a really enjoyable Stout with a ton of flavour keep up the good work Tin Whistle Brewing.
From Twin Sails Brewing in Port Moody comes their “Imperial Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels” a beer aged for one year in Bourbon Barrels for their second anniversary. This was bottle 309 of 468. The beer poured an opaque black with a brown head. The aroma consists of vanilla, bourbon, roasted malts, toffee, brown sugar, chocolate, anise with a sweet finish. The flavour was of vanilla, bourbon, oak, anise, chocolate, toffee, espresso, roasted malts, brown sugar, coconut and very little bitterness. The alcohol content is a cool 11.6% that is partially masked by the flavour of this beer.
Commercial Description: Aged in select bourbon barrels since September 2016, this dense, inky imperial stout has big aromas of fudge, vanilla and espresso. The palate brings an intense mix of chocolate, char, and coconut and a thick luscious mouth feel that leads into a warming, rich finish. An intentionally low carbonation brings an exceptional spirit-like character to the beer.
From Aldergove’s Dead Frog Brewery comes their new “Udder Domination Imperial Milk Stout”. The beer pours a black opaque colour with a light brown head. The aroma consists of roasted malts, chocolate, some espresso, milk and sweetness. The flavour is of chocolate, mild roasted malts, some earth, espresso, milk and some sweetness. The alcohol content comes in at 7.9% with an IBU of 30. While this is not an overly complex Imperial Stout it is still quite tasty and worth checking out if you find it in your local liquor store.
Commercial Description: Roasted, creamy, bovine. The Udder Domination is an imperial milk stout with flavours of creamy dark chocolate and roasted malts. It’s shipping now in BC and will be showing up on shelves soon in Alberta and the Yukon. The Udder Domination is a perfectly balanced milk stout that combines flavours of dark chocolate, cappuccino, and roasted nuts with a slightly sweet, creamy finish. We only made one batch so get it while you can!
From Steamworks Brewing in Burnaby BC comes their latest seasonal release the “Winter White Stout”. This may not be a true style of beer but it is gaining popularity right now. A white, golden or blonde stout is a beer that has a light colour but the flavour of a stout. The beer pours a golden colour with a white head. The aroma consists of espresso and some very mild chocolate but its pretty one dimensional. The flavour is of espresso, chocolate, caramel, earth, sweetness with a mild bitterness in the finish. The alcohol content comes in at 5.1% with an IBU of 33. While this beer does lack the body of a stout it sure does pack the flavour of one. I had previously heard of one White Stout but this is my first ever experience with the new style. While some purists may not like it I dug what this beer had to offer. Pick up a bottle and check it out for yourself!
Commercial Description: Steamworks Winter White Stout takes the rich typical stout flavours and body imparted from oats and barley, but without the dark coloured, roasted malts traditionally used in a stout. Instead, these roasted notes come from first aging the beer with whole espresso beans from East Vancouver’s Pallet Coffee, and then with whole cacao beans from East Van Roasters. The result is a deliciously unexpected brew that pours light gold with a thick white head, perfect for the West Coast Winter.
From Yukon Brewing in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories (Northern Canada 2,400km North of Vancouver BC) comes the “Midnight Sun (Espresso Stout)”. The beer pours a very deep brown colour with a brown head. The aroma consists of espresso, creamy and some roastiness. The flavour is of burnt malts, espresso, milk chocolate, earth and bitterness. The alcohol content comes in at 6.2%. This would be a very good beer to drink on a nice freezing cold winter night in the Yukon or even on a rainy winter night in Vancouver (or any other time you feel like it).
Commercial Description: In the fall of 2003, Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters, a local Whitehorse coffee company that roasts their coffee fresh here in the north, approached us with an idea. Zola Dore (the Yukon Bean Queen) was enjoying a home brewed espresso stout she was producing at a local U-brew when inspiration struck, “Let’s work together to produce this beer in bigger volumes”. Sometimes brilliance can be confused with insanity and espresso stout beer certainly lends itself to insanity, but several awards and hundreds of enthusiastic reviews later and it’s clear this creation is a winner. To say that our brew team outdid themselves is perhaps not going far enough. By the time they finished creating, we had a beer with eight different malts (that’s right, Alice, eight malts) not to mention oatmeal and, of course, espresso coffee. The result is a beer that is fine as frog’s hair, full bodied yet smooth, rich with coffee aromas and flavours without ever losing sight of the fact that it’s beer.
Mike's Craft Beer 