Lagunitas High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout
Ale Brewed with Coffee and then Aged in High West Whiskey Barrels.
This beer couldn’t have been done without the help from our friends at High West Distillery in Park City, UT and Chicago’s-own Metropolis Coffee. We brewed a rich, malty Imperial Stout with some of Metropolis’ Spice Island blend, then let it vintag-ize in High West Rye and Bourbon Barrels for up to 17 FREAKING MONTHS. It’s good to have friends!
2016: 12.2%
2017: 12.4%
This beer couldn’t have been done without the help from our friends at High West Distillery in Park City, UT and Chicago’s-own Metropolis Coffee. We brewed a rich, malty Imperial Stout with some of Metropolis’ Spice Island blend, then let it vintag-ize in High West Rye and Bourbon Barrels for up to 17 FREAKING MONTHS. It’s good to have friends!
2016: 12.2%
2017: 12.4%
4
312 reviews
Petaluma, United States
Community reviews
Poured from the tap. Black with light tan head. Thick chocolate with coffee and mild whiskey, subtle vanilla and wood. Alcohol is present, but mild.
35cl bottle. Very dark brown pour with a thin tan head that disappears in an instant. Visible carbonation rising to the surface. huge whiskey notes up front, followed by some intense brewed coffee as well as roasted coffee notes, quite a bit of oak, vanilla, roast, light toaste coconut, burnt caramel and cherry bitterness. A great barrel-aged stout with a nice mix of coffee and whiskey notes, though the base stout notes are a bit too subtle (could do with a bit more roast and body).
What a delicious beer. Perhaps underrated, if that’s possible. The coffee is subtle, smooth and tasty. Just a stellar and almost sessionable imperial stout!
Not quite what the hype would have you believe, but it’s the best Heineken I’ve ever had.
On draught. Pours black, with a medium mocha head that persists, leaving good lacing. Nose is coffee and bourbon. Taste follows.
Nice coffee flavor with a boozy bourbon finish. Good.
Very approachable big BA stout. Sold in a 6 pack!? Good bourbon flavor, coffee, and a earthiness. Decent smooth for the abv. Not super complex, but it’s all there. Good stuff.
Lagunitas High West-ified adds a lot of bourbon barrel character to an already big and boozy Imperial Stout. This black brew has notes of bittersweet roast, coffee, and chocolate. It’s almost unbelievably smooth for being over 12%. There is a lot of alcohol warmth coming from it, but it’s very manageable as a sipper. It feels like it’s taken awhile for Lagunitas to release a proper barrel-aged Stout, but they appear to be making up for lost time.
Bottle poured into a snifter showing pitch black with spare latte colored foam.
The nose shows a lot of bourbon barrel with hints of coffee.
The palate is full bodied, slick, and lightly carbonated. Bourbon forward flavors of oak, smoke, and vanilla with the vanilla maintained well in the background. Finish is more bourbon again. Bourbon is overt and dominates the beer but not takes the better charateristics of the bourbon without the alcohol heat despite the high ABV. Drinks a little bit too close to straight bourbon.
Je l’ai toujours dit et je le répète : une très grande chance que les produits de Lagunita’s ne sont pas distribués au coin de la rue car je n’y survivrais sans doute pas. Ce stout, c’est du grand shelf. Du très grand, me permettrais-je d’ajouter. Une robe noire et opaque fatale accompagnée d’épices boisées venant du rye avec sa chaleur qui m’enivre rien qu’à la respirer. Du café épicé, de la barrique chaude et une profondeur des céréales à nulle autre pareille. Soyeuse et raffinée en bouche, le café est prédominent sans pour autant éclipser le seigle et le bois. Belle amertume des grais de café torréfiés en fin de bouche, longue, réconfortante. Dun très grand shelf!
I saw these yesterday and bought a six pack. You wont sit and drink many of these. 14% abv. Interesting beer. Very dark, pitch black. Earthy, Whiskey dominate the smells. I see that some people have said it is too coffee but I didn’t get that at all. Very sweet,vanilla chocolate, heavily malted. You can really taste the Rye Whiskey flavors. Great lacing. I would have liked to see more roasty coffee flavors but I don’t get to add what I want to the beer LOL. This is not a beer to just drink, but to enjoy for a while. I have two half pint tasting glasses. I poured them both up, and shared the beer with my son.
If you really like the whiskey barrel aged beers, then I suggest you go out and get a six of these. You will not be disappointed.
12 oz. bottle big thanks to DalzAle! Pours brown black with a tiny foamy film and collar. Aroma has really nice bourbon coffee smell with roasted malt dark chocolate hidden rye. Taste is bitter roasted malt sweet bourbon chocolate coffee and faint spice maybe rye. Palate is full sticky and warming. Awesome.
Close, but not enough. The coffee hides too much in the bourbon and that really takes away from the experience. Refer to the KBS for how to bring the coffee into the BBA experience.
(12oz. bottle) - Pours a huge three finger tan head. But, it’s collapsing right in front of my eyes, leaving a fair amount of lace inside the glass. Dark brownish-black body. Boozy aroma of cocoa and freshly ground medium roast coffee. What an amazing flavor!! Toasted coconut with lightly roasted grains. Just the right amount of hop bitterness on the back end. Mouth feel tells you you’re sipping something with a bit of oomph to it. Not a log of alcohol lingering in the after taste. I don’t smoke cigars. But, this would definitely be classified as a good one to pair with something on the heavy side like a Maduro. Really glad they packaged this as a six-pack rather than a bomber so it will last a lot longer. At $11.99/6-pk this is a steal!!
Dark bald body brown head nice lacing. Roast cocoa coffee and booze aroma. Taste is sweet malty whisky cocoa
Really fucking good.
I thought this was bitchin’. Pours black with creamy mocha head. Aromas of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, barrel. Sweet and mocha like flavours. Just delicious. Smooth, sweet, and rich.
Call it what it is: stout that’s HEAVILY influenced by rye whiskey. Yes, there’s a little coffee in the aroma and a bit of coffee bitterness in the taste. The aroma and taste, however, are heavily influenced by High West’s delicious rye whiskey and the stout is supremely sweet and smooth. Because I very much enjoy rye whiskey, I very much enjoyed this beer. It might be too one-dimensional for others. Bottle dated Jan. 14, 2017.
Draft at Growler Guys. I haven’t had a Lagunitas beer in while; this was fantastic. Dark brown pour with a pinky sized tan cap. The aroma is rich, sweet and swirling with mocha, vanilla, and bourbon. Huge flavor throughout. The coffee and bourbon are playing nicely together, more chocolate and vanilla. Sweet, but not too sweet. Really really good. In fact, if I’m being honest, one of the best beers I’ve had in a while. This was a good reminder that I need to try more of their beers.
Pours black and very thick, with very little foam, but a little bit of tan foam appeared after a few seconds. Ridiculously complex aroma, I detect chocolate, coffee, raisins, dried apricot, almonds, and wet leaves. Flavor is robust, and not too bitter. Velvety mouthfeel. This is a fantastic ale.
One hell of a bourbon barrel stout. Coffee and vanilla on the nose with a spiciness and raw alcohol esters. Intense flavors of chocolate, bourbon, toast and coffee, with a zing of citrus and spice. Not too sweet, just a great complexity of coffee and whiskey together.
12oz bottle pours black with tan head aroma is coffee chocolate and bourbon taste is the same well balanced very nice.
On tap at City Tavern DTLA (heard they’re closing soon - too bad). Opaque black with a two-finger tan head with good retention and oily lace. Aromas of coffee, roasted malt, oak, rye, bourbon and vanilla. Flavor profile is similarly complex, yet well balanced, as coffee and vanilla up front give way to roasted malt sweetness, bourbon/whiskey, dark fruit and oak. Full body, little carbonation, slick mouthfeel and a warming alcohol finish. Very pleasant sipper.
They’re definitely getting closer to nailing the tap-feel of a beer aged in a whisky barrel. This beer was amazing around Christmas but it made me miss the three percent more I’d get out of a tap. Good taste, a bit too expensive for a six pack. Inevitably tap aged stouts give you all the coffee and chocolate and flavours you want whereas the bottled stouts usually miss something. An exceptional value, however. It has that great coffee almost chocolatey taste you desire. One of the better tasting stouts also adding some heaviness. Bottled stouts are getting more and more exciting, I do however wish there was a bigger market and more competitors year-round.
Tap. Poured a dark brown color with an average creamy brown head that mostly lasted and produced excellent lacing. Moderate to heavy toasted chocolate malt and bourbon aroma. Full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Moderate to heavy complex toasted sweet bourbon flavor with a heavy toasted sweet finish of long duration. Complex standout beer.
Earlier Rating: 5/10/2015 Total Score: 3.8
Tap. Poured a clear dark brown color with an average frothy tan head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Moderate to heavy roasted chocolate malt, coffee and sweet alcohol aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium to heavy toasted chocolate malt sweet alcohol flavor with a medium to heavy dark sweet and small alcohol bite finish of moderate to long duration. This is solid beer.
A very nice coffee stout. Bitter beginning with a sweet chocolate finish. Black and night. Aroma of coffee and booze. Vanilla and dirt. Tried at the Omaha Extreme Beerfest in 2017.
Vintage 2016, servida en Spiegelau tulip.
APARIENCIA: de color negro con destellos rojizos y marrones a contraluz; corona de espuma color beige de mediana retención, con burbujas compactas y algunas abiertas al centro. Se alcanzan a ver piernas de alcohol en la copa.
AROMA: bien presente el whiskey de centeno el cual se percibe muy ligeramente especiado, además notas a coco tostado, roble, vainilla, café tostado y herbal, frutos oscuros como pasas y ciruela, ligeramente algo de chocolate dulce.
SABOR: de inicio es una combinación entre las características de la barrica y el café; el whiskey especiado, vainilla, roble, más ligeramente coco tostado y el café tostado, como si fuera cold-brew/extraído por frío y que aporta una muy ligera acidez agradable además de algo herbal tenue, atrás quedan notas a chocolate semidulce, cocoa, algunos frutos oscuros pero mucho más ligero que en aroma, tales como pasas y ciruelas. En el retrogusto queda un amargor ligero alto, además de una persistencia larga a whiskey y ligeramente café así como chocolate.
SENSACIÓN: cuerpo medio con sensación untuosa y cremosa en boca, baja carbonatación. El alcohol se percibe ligeramente en boca durante cada trago, así como una sensación calurosa no agresiva al correr el líquido por la garganta.
on tap @ rattlenhumbarnyc west. huge boozy vanilla nose, lace, sweet, boozy hot, vanilla, dark fruit later, super creamy.
This is what I want in a good imperial stout. Coffee, yeah, lots of it, mixed with lighter bourbon and oak, dark chocolate, molasses, a touch of smoke and very light heat. A complex and challenging beer, a good sipper, warming, not too sweet. Excellent beer from Lagunitas. Admittingly, this is an up and down brewer for me. I don’t always get as excited as others, especially for their hop line. This, however, gets me excited. Very good.
Bottle. Black with a thin tan head ans average lacing. Aroma is coffee, cocoa, rye, vanilla, and oak. Taste is dark roasted malts, espresso beans, cocoa, coffee, vanilla, rye, whisky, and oak. Thick and dry with lingering coffee.
Poured into a snifter, the appearance was a black color with a tired white foamy head that dies off to leave some tired concave lace.
The aroma had some fresh/green coffee bean, bold and up front. Thick dark luscious chocolatey malts. Big woody dryness. Some milk chocolate and a touch of vanilla.
The flavor mostly blends between the sweet and the roast with that "fresh/green" bitter hoppiness really pummeling thoroughly. Sly rugged roastiness hits the "fresh/green" bitter hoppy portion in the aftertaste, and it gets kind of sticky in the finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a fair sipping quality about it. Carbonation seems a bit lower than expected. Subtle stickiness.
Overall, well, I didn’t get the "whiskey" in this. The coffee bean seem extremely fresh as if it wasn’t fully roasted before being used in the beer. Did I just drink at the wrong time? Still, I’m not sure if even aging this beer would do it any good. I feel like I got a bad bottle judging by other reviews.
black magic. smooth and velvet black magic. roasty and full of malt with wood at the end. some hop and black malt you can imagine what you want with that now can’t you? yeah i guess coffe and evaporated milk and a touch of sweetener as it is not easily discernible your too busy with the sensory overload! alcohol yeah but not prominent. lagunitas i bow to you. big deep brown foam.