The Stats
Style: American Stout
ABV: 7.5%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 4.09/5
- RateBeer:
- Untappd: 4.04/5
"Brigadeiro is a breakfast stout brewed w/lactose, cocoa nibs and Brazilian coffee!"
Not much of a description, but whatever. Springdale Barrel Room is the sister brewery to Jack's Abby in Framingham, MA. Jack's Abby exclusively brews lagers, so the Springdale Barrel Room concentrates more on Ales and barrel-aged beers. The brewery is located directly next door to Jack's Abby and has an extensive collection of IPA's, barrel-aged sours, and even a stout or two for good measure. Today, I am trying their "Breakfast Stout", an American Stout brewed with coffee, cacao, and lactose.
Pours pitch black in color with a finger of light brown head.
The aroma isn't just coffee-forward, but one of the richest coffee aromas I've ever experienced. Lactose is noticeable, but not too big and a dark chocolate bitterness has a good bite along with roasted malts.
The coffee on the taste taken on a more deeply, dark-roasted, bitter experience, but it is still just as rich as it was on the aroma. Like the nose, the lactose is here, but it is nearly a ghost. The cacao is pretty much non-existent and this is really just a straight up coffee stout, but a good one at that. Roasted malts are in abundance as is a kick of smoke to make things interesting. That small bit of lactose and the rich, dark coffee make for an iced coffee with cream taste that I am digging so much. It finishes with coffee grounds hanging on the back of the tongue and a bitter aftertaste.
Mouthfeel is full, but not the thickest out there for the style. The body is smooth and there's no alcohol to be found.
Brigadeiro may have been lacking in the cacao, but the resulting coffee stout is ahead of most of the others in the category. It's rich, bitter, and smooth, so there's really not much more you want in the style. I think "Breakfast Stout" might be a bit misleading, but as a standalone coffee stout, it is great.
Rating
8.2/10
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