Tsumi

 At 8.5%, Godspeed’s Tsumi is a burly imperial coffee stout. The beer, born at Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery, is sold in 355mL cans. It’s a near-black ale with a frothy tan head. 

Tsumi has a robust coffee nose; bitter with a syrupy sweetness. The flavour is big and bold, with black coffee notes and ample bitterness. The booze in this brew is undeniable and it has a thick texture.

A coffee beer with some attitude, Tsumi is an enjoyable ale from a brewery more known for their elite Czech-style lagers.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Qawa

 Qawa is a towering imperial stout brewed with coffee and chocolate. The beer, born in Toronto, comes from Bandit Brewery, while the coffee is sourced from Propeller and the chocolate from ChocoSol. Sold in 500mL bottles, the beer is coal black and it pours with a dark tan head.

Aromatically, dark chocolate it absolutely the star of the show, though there is a comforting espresso subtext as well. The flavour is many things, but it sure ain’t subtle. The beer is sweet and malty, with enormous chocolate richness and jumbo boozy heat. Dark roast coffee is also well represented, particularly in the bitterness that mingles with persistent sweetness in the finish. In the margins, there are notes of leather and raisin. The mouthfeel is smooth, yet thick.

I try not to ascribe morality to food and drink, so I’m not going to use the adjective “sinful”, but this boozy bastard really is an indulgence. Truthfully, I found it over sweet, but not to the point of being cloying. The creamy/syrupy texture, though, is spot on for a dessert beer. Qawa really warmed me up over a cigar on a damp, snowy November Sunday evening.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Hamilton Haul--Survival Mode

Survival Mode is billed as a “stout brewed with coffee & vanilla”. It’s a 6.5%, 20 IBU ale sold in 473mL cans by Hamilton’s Grain & Grit Small Batch Beer. The skull in a coffee pot optics on the label made this a hard beer not to buy, so I did x3.

Survival Mode has a handsome, blackish ale with a quick-lived tan head. It’s got a sweet mochaccino nose and a flavour that matches—sweet to bitter movement with café con leche elements. The back end delivers a finish that I’d have sworn was heftier than the advertised 20 IBUs. As for vanilla, there is a whisper, but not much more than that.

This beer has a lot to like—great strength, good balance, and solid bitterness. I didn’t entirely love the coffee flavour, which I found to be a bit grainy. I’d also like to know a bit about the coffee they sourced for the endeavour, but no info was immediately forthcoming.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Midnight Oil Coffee Stout

Friend of the Bitter World MW showed up unexpectedly with a couple of bottles from Abe Erb Brewing Company out of Kitchener, Ontario. Note: if you have non-readily available beer from a cool brewery, just drop by. I usually hate a pop in, but far flung ales? Bring ‘em by Stout Man Manor. Do it!

One of MW’s deliveries was a 341mL stubby, medicinal bottle of Midnight Oil Coffee Stout. It’s a 5.2% alcohol ale brewed using a Sumatra-based coffee from Settlement Co. The beer is a late night number with a tan head that lasted only a short time and faded to a thin disc.

More than most coffee-flavoured ales, Midnight Oil has a wild java nose. Seriously potent Joe. It has some sweetness and a healthy malt, too, but coffee is the nose candy in this ale. The flavour is a bit less overtly caffeinated, but there is still some bitter coffee heft. Along for the ride are malty notes, sweetness, and some chocolate notes.

Abe Erb’s take on the coffee stout is a lovely little number. It’s not quite as bitter as I’d have liked, but it is rich and sweet, with decent strength and, not to repeat myself, a brilliant aroma. This is a coffee ale that I’d gladly revisit. It’s a bit too saccharine, though it isn’t a deal-breaker.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Milk Run Coffee Stout

Do you have a brother? Are you pals? Is he a cool guy? I’m sure he is. But my brother, the illustrious R.A.N., is better. That’s because my brother is the best brother. As he often does, on one of his latest journeys he brought me some bottles; this time they were from Collingwood, Ontario’s Northwinds Brewery. One of my gift bottles was a snazzy 500mL dealie of Milk Run Coffee Stout, a 5.6% dark ale brewed with java from Ashanti Coffee Estate, a local to Collingwood coffee roaster., and with lactose.

Milk Run is an obsidian ale with a plume of tan head and a pushy aroma of sweetened black coffee. With a deliriously smooth mouthfeel that gives way to a crunchily hoppy finish, Milk Run has an exceptional texture. Its flavour ain’t too shabby, either, with creamy coffee notes, roasted malt, and a modestly bitter back end.

While I enjoyed Milk Run quite a bit, there are elements that could have been tweaked to better tailor it to my unique tastes. For instance, I take my coffee black and bitter, and this beer exuded go-go beans at a two sugars level of sweetness, which was a bit much for me. I’d have throttled down on the sugar and amped up the bitter; however that is my own beer and coffee preference, so your own tastes may lead you to different conclusions. The creamy, lactose-infused mouthfeel was more than agreeable, adding a level of depth and volume to the brew, but, again, contributing to a too sweet flavour. According to the Northwinds Brewery website, Milk Run was designed as a breakfast beer, but to me, it’d be better suited to a digestif role—a dessert beer to be enjoyed on a full stomach.

 

Happy birthday, bro!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

KBS

During a recent trip to the ol' US of A, I effected a bold beer swap with the solid and courageous MM. To her went some of my favourite Ontario brews, and my way came some of her preferred American suds. One of those was KBS, a stout flavoured with chocolate and coffee. According to the Founders Brewing Co., of Grand Rapids, Michigan, this 2016 release of KBS is bourbon barrel aged and "is good for everything a flavo[u]red stout ought to be good for." No percentage was listed on the bottle, but KBS was clearly strong (the website told me it was actually 12.4% with 70 IBUs!!!).

Scent-wise, the beer was woody and sweet, with cocoa notes. The flavour was extremely full-bodied and wildly boozy, with notes of oak, chocolate, and java providing an assertive blend. The finish was quite bitter, but not enough to surmount the boozy sweetness that lasted from uncapping to finishing the ale. It had a very thick and syrupy mouthfeel.

 

As someone who spent a little bit of time working in government, I found the lack of explanation of the "KBS" acronym unbelievably frustrating, but I enjoyed the beer all the same. This beer was way too sweet to revisit in the short term, but I'd be glad to sip it again during the winter months. It wasn't my favourite strong stout, but I liked it well enough to revisit. The coffee notes could certainly have been stronger, but this sweet and potent Imperial stout was still pretty decent.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.