Brewdog: Beatnik Brewing Collective: Bounty Hunter Coconut Milk Stout (Scotland: Stout: 6.5% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still. Creamy beige cm of a head that leaves suds.
Nose: Coconut. Lightly nutty. Creamy. Lactose. Milky chocolate.
Body: Roasted. Milky. White sugar. Light coconut. Sugared almonds. Light orange and fruit sugars. Very milky coffee. Vanilla. Caramel undertones.
Finish: Lactose. Light fresh and slightly fruity notes – ester like. Cane sugar. Bitter coffee. Coconut. Chocolate.
Conclusion: Ok, it is well known that I love coconut. Therefore this is the greatest thing ever. Review over. Natch.
Or is it?
Well it depends, chilled down this is a pretty standard, if well done – milk stout. Ok, I lie, maybe not quite standard but close to it for the most part. The sweetness is high even for the style, with the milky coffee made more flamboyant by sweet sugar and fruity notes that remind me of Belgian yeast ester. The fruit is a very subtle note, but gives a kind of jolly rancher hard candy thing going on there.
Warming it brings out the beloved coconut, not pushed heavily, but there is a coconut macaroon base that the milk stout is sieved through to get to your tastebuds.
So, how does it all come together? Well I know this called a Milk Stout, so calling to the sweet stout style but it is really pushing that – with toffee coming out on the body on top of everything else. An Imperial Stout can manage to soak up all that sweetness, but here it is a big deal, and comes through a bit too heavy.
Yet, somehow, it isn’t bad. It overdoes everything but the coconut (warm it gets it about right, cold the notes are nigh non existent) but those lovely fruit touches, and the combination with milky coffee is actually quite charming – if not on the style guidelines I would expect. Fun, but not one that gets beyond charming.
Background: This was brewed by Brewdog shareholders, after voting and discussion by Brewdog shareholders. It is pretty hard to get if you are not, in fact, a Brewdog shareholder. Sorry. I’m doing a tasting note for posterity anyway. As always I am not an unbiased actor on Brewdog beers as you may have guessed from the above. Drunk while listening to some calming Ulver. Was unsure on picking the style, flavor wise it aims for sweet stout, but abv plops it as a more standard stout.
