Brewer's Reserve: Why Is the Cake Gone?
Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, Wisconsin, United States 🇺🇸
Porter - Imperial Series|
Score
7.15
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Did someone say cake? This robust porter has been aged in rum barrels and comes together with vanilla and natural flavorings to deliver a cake experience in liquid form.
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5.8/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 8
Overall 4.5
Bottle at home. Opaque black color, full sized fizzy beige to light brown colored head that diminishes fairly quickly. Aroma is malts, sweetness, very odd cake notes. Flavor is similarly odd. Lightly malts, sweetness, odd, cake, candy, vanilla. Very weird mix, very sweet. Rum BA in there? Guess so but the flavor and aroma is so all over the place imo, that I'm confused. Too sweet for me. Drinkable, but not my kind of beer tbh.
Tried
on 03 Sep 2025
at 22:22
8.1/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8.5
Texture 8
Overall 8
Tried
on 01 Sep 2025
at 20:20
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7.5
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Panda at home, thanks to Kenneth, 26/08/2025.
Black with a good sized tan head.
Nose is chocolate, vanilla, caramel, dark malts, toasted brown sugars.
Taste comprises chocolate, coconut shavings, mellow barrel, toffee, dark malts, vanilla.
Medium bodied with bite, fine carbonation, light drying close with a mellow rising boost.
Tidy easy drinking pastry affair.
Black with a good sized tan head.
Nose is chocolate, vanilla, caramel, dark malts, toasted brown sugars.
Taste comprises chocolate, coconut shavings, mellow barrel, toffee, dark malts, vanilla.
Medium bodied with bite, fine carbonation, light drying close with a mellow rising boost.
Tidy easy drinking pastry affair.
Tried
on 26 Aug 2025
at 19:28
8.3/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8.5
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
9th August 2025
Near clear deep amber brown beer, small bubbly tan head. Airy smooth palate, mildly dry, decent fine minerally carbonation. Light bodied dark malts, candyish dark chocolate and coffee, fair dose of vanilla. Pretty cakey overall! The rum barrelling is just about spot on, brings the ripe brown sugar soaked ripe fruits in good balance to the other elements. Airy smooth finish leaves a mild alcohol spice linger. Good pastry by old stalwarts Central Waters. Bravo!
Near clear deep amber brown beer, small bubbly tan head. Airy smooth palate, mildly dry, decent fine minerally carbonation. Light bodied dark malts, candyish dark chocolate and coffee, fair dose of vanilla. Pretty cakey overall! The rum barrelling is just about spot on, brings the ripe brown sugar soaked ripe fruits in good balance to the other elements. Airy smooth finish leaves a mild alcohol spice linger. Good pastry by old stalwarts Central Waters. Bravo!
Tried
on 09 Aug 2025
at 19:12
7.4/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Creamy lightbrown good mostly lasting head. Black colour. Moderate malty and hoppy aroma. Moderate bitter flavor. Some cake and rhum. Average moderate bitter finish. Creamy palate.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Mar 2025
at 09:55
8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Big caramel malt aroma with cocoa, rum, coconut, sweet malt. Flavour is sweet with a mild bitterness. Medium to full body. Light booze, rich and sweet, caramel toffee and rum barrel. Great.
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Feb 2025
at 07:04
6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
On tap at Central Waters - Milwaukee, pours black with a small light brown head. Aroma has lots of rum barrels, vanilla, and sugars. Flavour is way too artificial, with rum barrels, vanilla, and sugars. I�m not quite sure exactly what type of cake they�re going for here. Stick with the old school impies � they can�t compete with the new-school breweries that specialize in pastry stouts.
Tried
from Draft
on 10 Dec 2024
at 04:06
6.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 6.5
Sampled from the tap at Northern Taphouse. Pours a clear deep brown with a light brown head that dissipates to the edges. Aroma has a good amount of vanilla and rum with cake and some chocolate underlying. Flavor has cake and vanilla supported by chocolate with a decent of rum backing.
Tried
from Draft
on 08 Nov 2024
at 03:26
7/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Aromas are cherries, dark malt, roast. Flavors are somewhat similar to nose, not overly sweet with enough roast and carbonation to balance. Okay body. I don't really pick up the rum. Not bad but not great.
Tried
from Bottle
from
La Crosse People's Food Co-op
on 01 Oct 2024
at 20:48
7.4/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Bottle at de morgenster. Pours black, nose is vanilla frosting, rum, raisin, clove, taste is cinnamon, rum, chocolate, vanilla, chocolate.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Sep 2024
at 14:13