Purchased: 12oz too-cool CAN from a 4-pack bought at Walgreens in Chicago, Illinois; 2013
Style/ABV: Spice/Herb/Vegetable (Imperial Stout), 10.0%
Reported IBUs: 85
If you read this blog (lol) you know I love coffee beers. It helps me transition from my coffee adiction to my alcoholism. Yay! So when I found out that Sixpoint (the brilliant bastards that melted my enamel with their Resin) made a coffee beer, I had to try it. Plus, I get a badge in Untappd. Ghey. About Sixpoint:
Sixpoint Brewery is relatively new to the world of craft beer, as they were founded in 2004. The brewery was founded by brewer Shance C. Welch, as he began brewing in an 800 square foot garage in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. Wikipedia states that the brewery was co-founded by Andrew Bronstein, who met Welch at the University of Wisconsin. Andrew provided the cash investment needed to lease the facilities and begin brewing. The brewery is known for its boundary-breaking philosophy. More specifically, Sixpoint is all about not defining their beers according to style guidelines. This point is echoed if you visit their Beers page. They state that they have brewed hundreds of different beers, and they have no plans to stop this proliferation of styles. Of final note, Sixpoint began canning their beer in 2011, which is pretty cool, especially for a craft brewer.
As usual, the can format is pretty awesome. This comes in a tall, slender, 12oz can. The 3Beans is part of Sixpoint's "rotational beers," and comes in at 10.0% ABV, and 85 IBUs. There's a video for the 3Beans that can be found HERE. The 3Beans is brewed with -- /// drumroll /// -- 3 beans. This beer uses Romano Beans, Cacao Beans, and Coffee Beans, to accumulate in one big, sexy, Imperial Stout.
This one does not dial up the Stout darkness or Stout thickness, initially pouring a light brown (not dissimilar to Lagunitas' Cappucinno Stout or the Founders' Frangelic Mountain Brown). The body eventually settles into a dark brown, black appearance, but bright light betrays the ruby red and brown body. The beer pours with three finger's worth of foamy, sandy, tan head. The head quickly dissolves into a thin, soapy layer just coating the beer. There's a lot of sticky lacing on this. Although not opaque, it's hard to see the carbonation in this. Frankly, this one is very cola-esque.
The aroma on this is pretty mild, with faint espresso, faint coffee (spent coffee, coffee in a can), hazelnut and malt sweetness (caramel, creamer), and a dash of velvety cacao. Overall though, not a particularly vibrant nose.
The taste is basically a mirror of the nose...this is initially light up front, with some espresso, thin carbonation (the coffee variety), dashes of velvety/creamy cappuccino, and a whole bunch of coffee in the can/spent in the filter. There's some aggressive bitterness punching my teeth on the back of this beer, and you really feel the brunt of 85 IBUs. Unfortunately, it's not really manifesting as bold flavors. I'm getting some watery tobacco mid-palate, and there's some earthy flavors dancing around with the coffee, including dirt and compost.
If there is a silver lining here, it's that the 10.0% ABV pretty much disappears into the slightly watery and smooth abyss that is this beer. BeerAdvocate is calling this beer a "Baltic Porter," and I sort of see why. This is medium-light in terms of mouthfeel, has average palate depth, and low to average complexity. Up front is malt sweetness, espresso, and burgeoning coffee; mid-palate is espresso bitterness, spent coffee, bitter bitterness, and fade to bitter; the back is teeth-punishing, 85-IBU bitter, faded coffee, maybe a dash of roast. Velvety smooth cocoa and creamer comes and goes. The finish is dry, bitter, and coffee-like.
Rating: Average
I'm feeling a Light Average on this...this isn't bad, is fairly drinkable, and is priced well at around 10-12 dollars a 4-pack. Now, comparatively...Founders' Breakfast Stout sells for similar prices, and comes in a6-pack 4-pack (edit: my bad, the FBS comes in a 4-pack). I'm not going to do the math, but you get the point. In the end, this is a solid beer, and would pair well with breakfast foods, or coffee-braised beef, a steak, ribs, brisket, or anything with a rich BBQ-type sauce. You could also pair this beer with chocolate desserts. If this was a niche beer, it would be a hair of the dog beer. Not too aggressive, drinkable, and will get you drunk again. Mmm.
Random Thought: I'm still not prepared to call this a Baltic Porter. Maybe just an "American Porter," or Robust Porter. But whatever. The sooner they make an official "Breakfast Beer" category, the happier I will be.
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| Sixpoint 3Beans |
This one does not dial up the Stout darkness or Stout thickness, initially pouring a light brown (not dissimilar to Lagunitas' Cappucinno Stout or the Founders' Frangelic Mountain Brown). The body eventually settles into a dark brown, black appearance, but bright light betrays the ruby red and brown body. The beer pours with three finger's worth of foamy, sandy, tan head. The head quickly dissolves into a thin, soapy layer just coating the beer. There's a lot of sticky lacing on this. Although not opaque, it's hard to see the carbonation in this. Frankly, this one is very cola-esque.
The aroma on this is pretty mild, with faint espresso, faint coffee (spent coffee, coffee in a can), hazelnut and malt sweetness (caramel, creamer), and a dash of velvety cacao. Overall though, not a particularly vibrant nose.
The taste is basically a mirror of the nose...this is initially light up front, with some espresso, thin carbonation (the coffee variety), dashes of velvety/creamy cappuccino, and a whole bunch of coffee in the can/spent in the filter. There's some aggressive bitterness punching my teeth on the back of this beer, and you really feel the brunt of 85 IBUs. Unfortunately, it's not really manifesting as bold flavors. I'm getting some watery tobacco mid-palate, and there's some earthy flavors dancing around with the coffee, including dirt and compost.
If there is a silver lining here, it's that the 10.0% ABV pretty much disappears into the slightly watery and smooth abyss that is this beer. BeerAdvocate is calling this beer a "Baltic Porter," and I sort of see why. This is medium-light in terms of mouthfeel, has average palate depth, and low to average complexity. Up front is malt sweetness, espresso, and burgeoning coffee; mid-palate is espresso bitterness, spent coffee, bitter bitterness, and fade to bitter; the back is teeth-punishing, 85-IBU bitter, faded coffee, maybe a dash of roast. Velvety smooth cocoa and creamer comes and goes. The finish is dry, bitter, and coffee-like.
Rating: Average
I'm feeling a Light Average on this...this isn't bad, is fairly drinkable, and is priced well at around 10-12 dollars a 4-pack. Now, comparatively...Founders' Breakfast Stout sells for similar prices, and comes in a
Random Thought: I'm still not prepared to call this a Baltic Porter. Maybe just an "American Porter," or Robust Porter. But whatever. The sooner they make an official "Breakfast Beer" category, the happier I will be.
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