8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 9

(950ml growler from the BG18e brewpub) Pours basically black with a tiny ring of dark tan bubbles. Aroma of black coffee, dark chocolate bar, toasty coffee beans, dark caramel, moderate nutty roast. Flavour is semi-sweet up front for pastry, with rich dark 'bar' chocolate, lightly sweetened black coffee, vanilla cream, some crushed coffee beans with (mercifully) no green pepper, some cake icing vibes to it drifting about too (lactose?), malt body is nice deep caramel with a nutty roast but little burnt quality, drying lightly into the finish with the coffee becoming more prominent and a slight hint of acidity to the roast and basically no alcohol warmth. Medium bodied and quite oily with very soft carbonation. Sure, this is maybe on the lighter side for a big US pastry stout, but the balance is excellent and BG is making some of the best pastry.