Coffee BA Imperial Stout - Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Cycle Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Imperial Regular|
Score
8.00
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
Bottle. Pours pitch black with a small brown head. Aromas of bright fruits, some citrussy notes, probably from the coffee? Dark fruits, vanilla, chocolate. Taste is fruity, vanilla, fudge, sweet cocoa, light green coffee, some dry roasty notes.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle at Cotteridge Wines; dark opaque dark black pour with a bubbly tan head, aroma has light coffee, taste has dark roast, dark fruits, dark chocolate, fairly thin mouthfeel, roast malts.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 10 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Anniversary beer from Cycle Brewing, a much-acclaimed Florida brewery, bomber from the unsurpassed Bierhalle Deconinck. My first Cycle beer - and from what I heard and read, that was about time, so I’m very curious about this. Thick, beautifully brownish beige, coffee cream-like head, slowly showing some gaps in the middle but clinging tightly to the edge with an irregular ’membrane’ of lacing and a thick moussy rim, eventually thinning into a very thin remainder of its former self, over a pitch black beer only revealing its ochre-ish brown hue in the very end and only on the edge. Intense, absolutely mouthwatering bouquet of hot chocolate sauce made with cognac, freshly made cappuccino, melting milk chocolate bars, coffee liqueur, hazelnuts, yellow raisins soaked in brown rum, cinnamon rolls, shortbread, vanilla beans, candied figs, wet leather, vaguer hints of beef stock becoming a lot more pronounced when warming up, marmelade, varnish, liquorice candy, banana milkshake, coconut flesh, marzipan, toast, whisky. Refined candied sweetness in the onset, lots of candied date, raisin, some marmelade, with a soft blackcurrant sourish touch underneath; umami is there (beef stock hints) but remains subordinate to the sweetness. Carbonation tingles very, very softly on the tongue, a bit too softly even, mouthfeel is fully oily, viscous and slick, with a very filling, satisfying body. Deeply nutty, toffeeish malt sweetness, carrying the residual candied sweetness onwards, gradually develops beautiful chocolatey properties with a gently bittering aspect to it, which becomes more outspokenly bitter and mouth-filling in the finish with the Ethiopian coffee doing its job as an added aromatic excellently - yet full-fledged roasted bitterness never truly comes. The finish is an utterly satisfying play of thick chocolatey maltiness, lingering coffee bean aromas, spicy hop bitterness piercing through and balancing out the overall candied sweetness, and the expected afterglow of warming, liqueurish, refined alcohol bringing warmth to the chest without otherwise interfering too much. A brambleberry-ish sourishness keeps hanging around in the back of the mouth afterwards. Thick, filling dessert stout, the type of sweeter-side ’impies’ that have been around in the new (especially American but also Scandinavian) craft beer world for years now but which still never fail to satisfy me. Beautiful, though perhaps I wouldn’t have minded a tad more carbonation in this case. Flavour- and aroma-wise, this is everything I expected from a beer from a brewery with this much acclaim and though this bottle was anything but cheap, I did not regret buying it - in fact, I will buy more from this brewery if I get the chance. A work of high class and standard, making it easy to see why Cycle is so renowned and sought after these days - if only I could get my hands on these Rare Scoop or Trademark Dispute variations they did...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle thanks to William. Pours black with small beige head that lasts. The aroma is roast, dark chocolate, oak, vanilla, bourbon. Thick, chewy, roast, dark chocolate, wood, vanilla, boozy finish, very good.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Sampled as Cycle Brewing Anniversary Ethiopian Yirgacheffe No head, near-black beer. Alcohol, sweet coffee and coffeecream dominating the nose. Sweet chocolate, sweetened coffee and mocha. Aftertaste has also some acidity. Well-bodied, creamy feel, alcoholburn. Quite nice, higher acidity than the other varieties.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Bottle shared at kermis’s. Thanks to mariuspoenari for this opportunity! Dark roasted malts, chocolate, prune, bit sandy, milky chocolate coffee beans, bourbon and vanilla. Big sweet and moderate bitter, tart coffee berry. Full body, powdery dry. Nice dry, nice roasted. Lovely.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Bottle shared. Pitch black pour with a thin tan head. Notes of roasted coffee, chocolate, bourbon, plums, dried fruit. Full body, medium carbonation. Damn good.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Bottle shared. Black with a ring tan head. Aroma of fresh coffee, roast, dark chocolate, fudge, dried fruits, dark fruits, light bourbon and light spicy notes. Flavour is heavy sweet and above moderate bitter. Full bodied with soft carbonation.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Bottle shared. Almost black with small dark beige head. Bourbon, sweet chocolate, sweet coffee with light berries and even more cocoa, fudge, roast, maple syrup. Less coffee, fruit and bourbon than the Vietnamese one, bit more roasted though. Quite sweet and medium bitter, soft tartness and light alcohol burn. Just over medium bodied with slick feel, low carbonation and some alcohol.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle. Pours a black color with a small tan head. Has a roasted malty coffee aroma. Roasted malty coffee licorice and chocolate flavor. Has a roasted malty coffee chocolate and licorice finish.