One of the few reviews that I’ve done where I have actually already had the beer while I’m writing the review.  The Captain Lawrence Espresso Stout, like most of their beer, is a draft only seasonal beer.  I’m writing this review as one of the few lucky people who actually have a sixtel of Captain Lawrence beer in their kegorator.  How you ask?  A couple of days ago, I hosted a Captain Lawrence Beer Dinner with Restaurant Passionne and Scott Vaccaro brought down a the last sixtel he had in the Brewery and after the event was done, he asked me if I wanted what was left.  So what beer geek  could possible say no?  After promising to return the log and the tap, it now sits in my kegorator pouring glass after glass of espresso deliciousness.

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My buddy Scott in Colorado sent me this beer a couple months back when it first came out (and a glass to drink it in).  I stashed it way with my ever increasing collection of beer and soon forgot about it.  That was until I got an email from Scott the other day about some podcast ideas and suddenly I had a hankering for an espresso (coffee) stout.  So here we are, I’m about to pull this out and I don’t know much about the beer aside from its got coffee in it and it is base beer is the wonderfully delicious Yeti Imperial Stout.  I reviewed it about a year ago and it was already packed fully of chocolate and coffee aromas and flavors.  In Great Divides’ infinite wisdom (seriously) they made an oaked version of Yeti.  Yeti aged with oak chips, which was even better then the Yeti with an additional layer of complexity of vanilla and oak.  Now they have taken the Oaked Yeti and added espresso to it.  They scored with the first ramp up of the Yeti to oaked Yeti, lets see how the Espresso infused oak aged Yeti is.

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A recent beer trade with Billy Broas brought Williamsburg Alewerks Coffeehouse Stout to my doorstep.  Having never heard of this beer or brewery, I’m particularly fond of Coffee Stouts, I’m excited to try this beer.  Disclaimer: I’ve been working on my taxes for the last 15 hours and I’m pretty fried, so my poor grammar and spelling will probably be worse tonight.  Then it again it may make it better…  Anyway, for me what makes a great coffee stout is a beer that is not overly acidic but has a strong coffee flavor and aroma.

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What can I say, with name like Dark Force, how could I pass it up? Furthermore with a style description of “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout” it sounds like a must try. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a Wheat Stout before, but I’d be expecting something like an oatmeal stout.

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It’s good to have friends in different parts of the country to send you beer that you can’t get locally, this beer comes to me via my buddy Jason at BarleyPopMarker.  You can read his New Glarus Cherry Stout review here, which I hadn’t read prior to this review.  I’ve had a bunch of New Glarus beers of late and when I heard their latest “Unplugged” would a cherry stout, I got pretty excited.  Love Stouts, Love Cherries, and Love spontaneous fermentation.  That’s right  spontaneous fermentation.  This beer was aged in oak barrels to promote  spontaneous fermentation, which gets me wondering will this beer be sour or funky and how much.

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This beer will be a first for me; the first time I’ve reviewed the same beer twice. My first Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast review was in April of 2009, almost a year later and I want to see if it is just as good, better, or worse as it was last year.  I love my coffee and I can very particular about it beer.  I don’t like the astringency I find in a lot of coffee beers, but a well done coffee stout can be heaven for me.

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