Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

Brewed By: Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Evolution Wine & Spirits in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Spice/Herb/Vegetable (Stout), 9.2%

Reported IBUs: 29.50

Coffee is my favorite thing ever, as evidenced by my love for Founders' Breakfast Stout and Bell's Java Stout. I'm also a big fan of cappuccinos, and espresso in general. Tonight's beer is a big ol' Stout-thing, brewed with coffee. Let's dig in. In case you don't know who Lagunitas are (Pronounced: "LAH-goo-KNEE-tuss"):

Lagunitas is a brewery I dabbled with when I hit up their controversially named "Kronik" (Lagunitas Censored) back in November 2010. The Lagunitas website has some cool info on the brewery and the beer, and can be found here. The brewery was founded in 1993 out in Lagunitas, California, and has since moved to Petaluma in California. It seems like Lagunitas is run by a bunch of deviant madmen geniuses, and the brewery appears to be a true grassroots movement, if you catch my drift.

The bottle states that this beer was "brewed with Sebastopol's Own Hard Core Coffee." I guess "Hardcore Espresso" is a big thing in Sebastopol. If you roll over to Lagunitas' beer page, you can see that they describe this beer as "big, dark and scary Imperial-esque Stout brewed with plenty of dark malts and roast barley and loads of Sebastopol’s Hardcore Coffee for deep roasty flavors and that extra krunk." There's not much else to say, except that this beer is pushing 30 IBUs, and packs an impressive 9.2% ABV. Let's glass this up.

Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

The beer pours a dark brown color that looks deceptively darker in low light. The pour also resulted in 3 finger's worth of big, thick, light-khaki/brown head. When held to bright light, I'm getting shades of ruby red and brown on the edges of the glass. This beer looks to be filtered, and you can actually see through this when you shine a light through it (the beer is clearly ruby red). There's a ton of carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles, and the head is sticking around nicely (with lacing and good pull).

There's a really nice coffee aroma on this. It's not as bitter as the Founders' Breakfast...or as "Java-y" as Bell's Java Stout. I'm definitely getting ground coffee in a can, espresso, dark black coffee, earthy, roast, earthy roast, and some sweet molasses/elusive fruits/chocolate buried in the mix.

Wow...this is a really interesting palate experience. Upon my first few sips, I was perplexed, but I think I get the jist of this beer. This is an espresso beer, straight up. If you've ever done a shot of cold espresso, you will know what's up with this beer. I'm getting HUGE espresso flavors, and big espresso bitterness. Along with the espresso, you get all the shades of coffee: dark, bitter coffee, coffee in a can, ground coffee. This beer is surprisingly creamy and smooth as well, which does lend to a "cappuccino" flavor profile. The espresso and coffee really dominate the palate, but you also get some nice roast, a hint of woody earth, and some boozy complexity on the back end.

Speaking of booze....holy shit is this really 9.2%? This beer drinks like it's 4.5%. Maybe I'm just a seasoned alcoholic, but I would drink this beer with caution. This masks the booze well, with hints of it popping up on the back. This has fairly low complexity (it's all about the espresso, baby), but has great palate depth. This has a medium-full mouthfeel, with a dry, bitter, espresso finish (and a fair amount of carbonation). Up front is carbonation and coffee; this rolls into big roast and GIANT espresso which turns into a creamy cappuccino flavor; the back is fading cappuccino, with big bitterness, and dry espresso finish. This is great for what it is.

Rating: Above-Average

As with Founders' Frangelic Mountain Brown, I'm feeling a Decent to Strong Above-Average on this. This isn't exactly a complex or complicated brew, but dammit, if you want espresso/cappuccino in your beer, look no further. This also drinks somewhere between a Stout/Porter and a strong Brown Ale. Actually, this drinks like a roasty, espresso-infused dark beer. I'm really impressed by how well this hides the alcohol. Anyway....food pairings: coffee-rubbed steak, pork, or beef. This would pair well with steak, pork chops. You could also go the breakfast route (anything, really) or the dessert route (chocolate cake, coffee cake, cheese cake). At a price of like 4.99 a bomber, I highly recommend at least checking this out. 

Random Thought: I'm still waiting for somebody to make an official "Breakfast Beer" category.