First off, apologies for not writing in a while. Second off, I'm fighting off the tail end of a cold so my sense of taste may be a bit wonky.
It's time for Fort Garry Brewing Co.'s second beer in their Brewmaster Series. I was a huge fan of their eisbock, so I have big expectations for today's beer. It comes in a 650mL brown bottle with 6.5% alcohol/vol and 50 IBU's. The label proudly displays a tiki doll, putting more emphasis on the "Kona" part of the beer's name. Near the bottom, it says "beer brewed with coffee". Oh boy! I suppose the best beers (that I've had) to compare this one to are Half Pints' Stir Stick Stout and Mill Street's Coffee Porter.
Upon opening, I was unsurprisingly greeted with a strong coffee aroma. It wasn't as strong as I was expecting, however. Upon pouring though, the coffee aroma got much stronger. It formed an average-sized dark brown head on its ridiculously opaque brown body. I couldn't even see through the beer as I poured it. Any bubbles were completely undetectable.
The first sip was pretty good. It tasted like the love-child of a beer and coffee. The beer was exceptionally bitter, but obviously needed to be as it made my lips slightly sticky (from the malts). The beer had a very soft feel in the mouth. The aftertaste was remarkably like that of a strong cup of black coffee. While the taste was like coffee, it was unlike any coffee I had ever had. Most likely due to the Kona variety of bean used in the brewing process. I will definitely have this beer again due to its limited production run. This beer pretty much reinforced my conclusions that coffee-flavoured beers are not my favourite.
