Long Trail Coffee Stout

Long Trail Coffee Stout

When you pour this beer slowly as recommended "for the best experience," you get no bubbles, no head, no effervescence at all. First sip: coffee yes, stout yes. Seems pretty good. Certainly not a disaster. Sips 2-5: good, but here's the problem: this beer is neither very coffee-esque nor very stoutish either. Long Trail has done a good job brewing this, because I don't really taste the 8.0%abv, but to be honest, this is underwhelming.

No offense meant to Long Trail, but this seems like a "beer of convenience." Long Trail is in Vermont, the Vermont Coffee Company is in Vermont. If I were feeling snarky, I would say this beer is as average as Vermont itself. I mean Massachusetts has Bean Town, and Harvard and the Kennedys. Maine has rugged sea coasts and lobsters, and Vermont has...well. But I'm not in a snarky mood, so I will say this is a solid beer, but I would rather have a superior stout like Guinnness or Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout or a kick-ass coffee like Southern Tier's Jah-Va Imperial Stout or even pour some Kahlua in my coffee. I appreciated Long Trail's understated berry taste in their Black Beary Wheat, but I don't usually enjoy berry bears. But I love coffee, and this just didn't get me revved up or excited. Good but not great.

Long Trail Coffee Stout

Representation: .60
Accessibility: .90
Style: .60
Personal Preference: .60

Total: 2.7 Flags

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Long Trail Coffee Stout (Citizen Review)

Long Trail Coffee Stout:

"I have not yet found a Long Trail brew I've liked...until today. Long Trail's Coffee Stout is heavy and dark, not watery like some of their other selections. Sweet, but not too much so and with a slightly bitter aftertaste, which suits its coffee roots. And bravo to the stones it takes to bring a stout out in 85 Degree weather."

Representation: 1.0
Accessibility: 1.0
Style Points: .5
Personal Preference: 1.0

Total: 3.5 Flags

--Reviewed by Citizen Jack Witzig


Read a review of Flying Fish's Imperial Espresso Porter
Read a review of Atwater Block's Vanilla Java Porter

Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat

Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat Beer. This review begins with an admission of guilt. Being an amateur cartoonist, I could not help but pick up a six pack of Long Trail's Blackbeary Wheat due to its funny and well-done label art depicting a cartoon bear (in glasses) on the verge of being pumelled by his wife with a rolling pin as he steals a blackberry (blackbeary) pie. I am guilty of being wooed by beer artwork, but I vow never to judge a beer by its cover. A long sniff into the bottle and a first swig reveal a pretty recognizable but timid taste of blackberry. Swigs 2 through 6 and you can taste the blackberry only as a finish. Pay attention as you swallow, you can taste it right there on the back of your tongue. What this beer scores low in style, it makes up for in accessibility. Its a fruit flavored beer I don't feel pressured to float an actual piece of fruit in, and I welcome a second and third bottle. On the neck label, Long Trail writes that the beer is "finished with a hint of Blackberries in the kettle," and that is what you get, a hint. Not too much, just enough, which makes this drinkable, and a novel summer beer to take to parties or just to admire and laugh at the label. Kitschy? Maybe, but smooth, not overpowering, and good enough to go back for more.

Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat

Representation: .8
Accessibility: .9
Style: .7
Personal Preference:.8

Total: 3.2 Flags