South Shore Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout Review

Name: South Shore Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout
Style: Stout
ABV: 6.1%
IBUs: N/A

Tonight I've an offering from South Shore Brewing, based out of Ashland, Wisconsin. I have their Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout, which I found on sale for $5 at one of my local stores that was sitting next to the Alaskan Barleywine amongst other things. Now I did have this beer once before at the Hot Air Balloon festival in Duluth last year, but like many beers I had that night, I wasn't taking notes.

Before starting this review, I did a bit of research on this beer which included reviews of this beer. I was a bit perturbed to see that a few of the reviews had mentioned that this beer was like mint mouthwash and there was even one review claiming it to be to it an infected batch. It's at that point I asked myself if it had been on sale for a reason.

Appearance - Pitch black with a thin dark khaki-colored head with some moderate lacing. There's also a bit of light visible carbonation along the sides of the glass.

Aroma - My first thought is that this smells like those mint chocolates you get after eating at Olive Garden. You've got strong peppermint and chocolate malt notes dominating the front of the nose, with some bourbon, oak & vanilla notes following that. Rounding all that up is some mild coffee notes & roastiness.

Taste - There isn't too much of a difference from the nose here. Once again, you've got that strong peppermint & chocolate maltiness upfront with the roastiness and coffee flavors taking on a bigger role. In between all of that is where I'm getting that bourbon & oak flavor that compliments the other flavors reasonably well. Even though the ABV of this beer is only 6.1%, the bourbon flavor gives it a warming sensation.

This beer is an interesting concept that I think is pulled off fairly well.....for the most part. At the same time, this is certainly not a beer for everyone and many will be turned off by the sheer mintiness of the beer. However if you're looking for a truly unique stout that, then this one is worth trying out so long as you aren't paying full price for this beer.

South Shore Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout - 7.5/10