Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout

Brewed By: Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, Wisconsin

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in IL; 2013 

Style/ABV: American Stout, ???

Reported IBUs: ?

My relationship with Central Waters is kind of up and down, but I was craving a big Imperial Stout tonight, and this should (hopefully) hit that spot. I guess this is an abusive relationship, but I can't quit you, Central Waters: 

Central Waters was founded in 1996 by two friends, Mike McElwain and Jerome Ebel. The two bought an old brick building in Junction City, Wisconsin. During the next two years, the two restored the building, and put in brewing equipment. A few months later, Paul Graham joined the brewery. After three years under the original ownership, the brewery was sold to brewer Paul Graham and home-brewer Clint Schultz. On the brewery's five-year anniversary, Central Waters purchased a new brew house because the old location was having issues with equipment and age. In 2006, Clint Schultz left the brewery. The brewery is currently owned and operated by Paul Graham and Anello Mollica. To read more about the brewery, check out their history page.

The Brewhouse Coffee Stout is pretty legit. Brewed with Emy J's coffee, this beer is part of Central Waters' Brewers Reserve Series of beers. There's no ABV listed on the bottle or the website, but BeerAdvocate lists this at 8.2%. I dunno how or where they got that number, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout

This beer pours a dark black, opaque color, and kicks up one to two fingers of really nice, dark khaki/dark tank/brown head. The head is sustaining nicely with good duration, and is leaving some lacing. In bright light, the beer looks much of the same. This beer leaves epic sheets of lacing on the glass, and I'm really impressed with the foamy head that is hanging around. Carbonation is visible on the sides.

I should mention that I really like the bottle art on this. I'm a big fan of coffee Stouts, and this beer's aromatics are no slouch. The aroma wallops your nose with giant coffee. I'm getting huge coffee beans, ground coffee, lighter/sweeter coffee, and nice malty hints of chocolate and roast. There are some hints of espresso, earthy dirt, vanilla/creamer, and some earthy-truffle-chocolate as well.

Now that I taste this beer...and wow, what a Stout this is...I'm getting some hops on the aroma. There are quite a bit of hops in this beer. This beer's body is driven by tons of carbonation, and that soda-like coffee carbonation that is present in so many of the coffee Stouts. There's tons of espresso, rich roasted coffee, coffee beans, ground coffee, hints of vanilla and creamer, and hints of chocolate and roast present in the taste. You also get quite a bit of earthy hop bite. The hops are fairly resinous and astringent, providing some earthy and woody synergy to the big coffee notes. It's truly a fantastic use of hops, and up there with the Oskar Blues Ten FIDY. 

This beer is full-bodied and finishes with a little residual sticky/syrup. However, thanks to the soda-like carbonation and the coffee, the beer feels thin at times. This isn't the fault of Central Waters or this beer, it's just a thing with coffee Stouts. This is very drinkable, which may or may not mean anything since I don't know what the ABV is. Palate depth is really good, and the complexity is also outstanding. Also, the duration on this is really good...you get coffee, roast, and chocolate up front; that rolls into earthy coffee, dirt, and resinous hop punch; the resinous hops and coffee roll into sweeter coffee, vanilla, creamer, espresso; that fades into lingering coffee, roast, and some pleasant, warming booze. The finish is sticky and big. 

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a very, very Light Divine Brew on this...to be honest, this beer pisses me off. This is a REALLY GOOD BEER. Dear Central Waters, just fucking stop with Peruvian Morning. Okay? It's not worth the infections and heart break. Just make this beer more regularly. This is a dynamite coffee Stout, and at 6 or 7 bucks a bomber...what a deal. I mean, even Lagunitas is blushing at this beer's price. The addition of the hops to compliment the earthy coffee, plus the duration, plus the layers of coffee complexity make this is a serious winner. Pair this beer with a burger, or some ribs, or some ice cream...or just sip on it as a dessert beer. Nice.

Random Thought: It's Autumn and I feel like I already have enough of a stash to pack things in and just cut through what I have. We'll see how that goes, but it's hard to believe that Christmas and Winter beers are just around the corner....