89. Southern Tier Imperial Coffee Stout Jah*va

Our third beer from Southern Tier (how’s that for the inadvertent rhyme?)—it would seem that we currently have a thing for Southern Tier’s big beers, wouldn’t it? Our first one was their Crème Brûlée, and the second beer was their Imperial Mokah. We had this beer with our Sunday morning breakfast of grits and eggs. That, my friends, is good livin’.

Jah*va exudes roasted coffee notes along with dark sweet aromas; a deep mahogany color with red highlights, it has a creamy tan head. Starting with thick dark sweetness, some low-level burnt notes, a subtle chocolate flavor, and a decent amount of roasted coffee flavor, Jah*va’s middle moves into the classic roasted and burnt malt flavors before transitioning back into a rich but soft coffee flavor to close out the beer. The thick and rich mouthfeel is both dense and smooth; there is a bit of a carbonation bite in the second third of the beer, and some slickness on the palate, but clean, flavorful, and enjoyable. As it warms, alcohol begins to emerge in the nose, along with more coffee aroma, and it also becomes more rounded—flavors across the palate start to marry better. As an accompaniment to our breakfast, Jah*va was an excellent choice—breakfast deserves this type of reward.

From the bottle: “Over three thousand feet above sea level in the misty mountains of Jamaica, some of the world’s finest beans are hand picked on their way to becoming Blue Mountain coffee. Halfway around the world, plump spring barley grows to maturity in the loamy soil of North America while aromatic hops are cultivated to exacting standards. Here in our kettles, these three special ingredients are blended to create a heady mixture of sweet sugar, dark roast, and complex flavor. Please enjoy this brew in moderation.”

ABV: 11%

OG: 27° P
Ingredients:
2-Row Pale malt
Caramel malt
Chocolate malt
Black malt
Roasted barley
Cascade and Columbus hops
Jamaican roasted coffee

Sorry, we didn’t have a snifter to serve it in. This was breakfast. So suck it up and deal.

(9/27/2009)