Bootknocker Mean Bean

[James Kitchens]

I posted this on BTG:

A Coldchill Special Ale

"That one is solid. #2 behind his latest DIPA."
- culdeus, circa 2007

This one is not marked as to style, so not sure. But really seems more of a porter than anything closer to a stout. Not sure what style he was going for, but the coffee obviously comes out. Great roasted taste, and I am not tasting hardly anything for hops.

Overall: 4
Appearance: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 4

12oz bottle, bottled in Jan 2006 by Coldchill

A = Dark, black, whatever. No light getting through this one.

S = Roasted malt and chocolate with coffee smell mostly. Hops not very apparent.

T = Exactly the same as the smell. You get the roasted flavor first. Then the coffee, which I thought wasn't all that strong. But my wife tried it and said "Oh, it's really in there....". She did like that. Alcohol comes out quite a bit as it gets to room temp.

M = Somewhat thin, which leans me either to a porter or imperial stout for a style category.

D = Good. But for me probably not a "multiple" beer. Although, in defense of Coldchill, no beer is really a "multiple" beer for me. 1+ of these I think would push Furley pretty far past his tolerance and nightly quota.

I liked this. More than most porter/stout beers I usually have. Certainly more than almost every other "coffee" beer I've ever had. I am not a coffee person, so a coffee beer never comes easy to me. I actually liked Founders B'fast Stout. But that's the only other one than this one that I can easily think of being easy for me to drink. Not saying this one compares on par to B'fast Stout. It is noticeably one notch below it. But that can be said for a lot of beers. This one holds its' own with most any of the others in the coffee beer category. I agree with culdeus here, this one is good. I would certainly put this one up with his 6-4-3 DIPA and say that they are pretty much Professional Grade beers.

[James Kitchens]

Coldchill reply on BTG:

Thanks for the review, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think I've mentioned before that what I was going for and what I got with this beer are not anywhere near one another. Target starting gravity was 1.070, actual was 1.114. Did you notice the vanilla? It's subtle but I think that it adds a lot.

[James Kitchens]

My reply:

I noticed something that now that you mention it may have been vanilla. But one comment you made on the website was that the flavors "blend together". That's so true, and the vanilla did not stand out. Maybe that was one of the many flavors that ran together and were hard to pin down, because there were some things going on in there that were interesting but you can't really peg them exactly. If anything I think the vanilla rounded out the flavor a bit and gave it some balance at the opposite end of the spectrum.

[James Kitchens]

Duckboy posted on BTG:

Thanks to the brewer for this one. Forgot to sign the bottle though Wink

Poured into a pint glass. Dark, dark, dark - close to pitch black. Little head, but likely due to the slow decanting per brewer's instructions. Great coffee and roasted malt smells here, with slight subtle vanilla and chocolate in the background. Strong roasted taste - coffee was there as well as the vanilla (lighter on the chocolate than I suspected); also a slight metallic tang toward the end that cut back on the overall finish. Carbonation level was good, maybe slightly high but not overly so. Alcohol was present at room temp at the end; pretty well hidden for an 11% beer.

A: 4
S: 4.5
T: 4
M: 4
D: 4

Overall a 4.2 - top-notch homebrew. Definitely more toward the porter side based on the roastiness. Coffee and vanilla were very present, choclate was background to me. But I like coffee beers more than chocolate beers so this was good.

Not sure what was up with the metallic taste - bad cap maybe? Seemed out of place. Other than that, this is top notch and anyone who can get one should try it. Thanks coldchill!