So with Cincinnati Beer Week coming to an end and Beerfest on the immediate horizon I wanted to do one last Cincinnati beer for the time being. And with that, My thoughts shifted to Mt. Carmel. I've looked at each of their seasonals, the Snapshot Series Third Shift Imperial Coffee Stout, but never any one of their core offerings. I was at Jungle Jim's and I saw a bottle of their stout sitting on the shelf. I believe this is the only one of their beers that I've never even tried, let alone featured on the blog. Time to rectify that. To the beer!
Mt. Carmel's stout pours a deep, silky, opaque black. Topped by a loosely bubbled brown head that dissipates fairly quickly.
Robust coffee and milk chocolate mingle on the nose to create a lovely mocha sort of thing. Roasty grain and some slightly burnt sugar are there along with some faint hints at pitted fruits which lend some nice complexity.
Mt. Carmel's Stout is full bodied, but never heavy. It leads with notes of bitter coffee and dry dark chocolate. It becomes sweeter through the sip but heads back around to a fairly dry finish. It's very smooth, with a nice round creaminess. A very mild raisin/ date fruitiness adds some color to the roasty grain flavors.
This is a pretty simple stout, but one that I think fulfills a pretty great task. This beer seems to perfectly straddle the line between a milder dry Irish stout and an intense imperial stout. More bold and flavorful than a dry Irish, but nowhere near the heftiness or body of an imperial. It has some of the drinkability of a dry Irish stout (it's 6.7 % ABV so it's not quite as sessionable, but close) and some of the flavor of an imperial without committing to a 9, 10, 11% ABV brew. The best of both worlds if you ask me! And most importantly, it's very tasty. If you're looking for a stout that doesn't skimp on flavor but without the syrupy mouthfeel and intense levels of alcohol, may I present to you this gem.
Have fun at Beerfest this weekend folks!
HD
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