Cisco Captain Swains Extra Stout

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Strong, smoky aroma has firm notes of molasses, caramel and quality coffee. It pours a rich, warm, opaque sable with a thick, fine-bubbled, light tan head. Rich flavor has molasses, roast coffee, caramel and charred wood notes plus a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Full-bodied texture has a good amount of fizz, and leaves a nice smoky tingle.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours dark black with a low tan head that goes away pretty quick. Not unlike other stouts., what makes this one a bit different is the heavy smoke flavor with an underlying sweet tone. All in all this is OK, not great.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 10

A very nice stout. I'm a fan of stouts, but this one is a great example. Typical stout color. Yeasty smell. The only problem I had with this, is the INSANE amount of foam that came out when I opened this sucker.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Beer pours dark brown with two finger head. Very pretty...nice lacing as well and some yeasty chunkies on the bottom of my glass. Flavor is sweet malt. The flavor isn't as sweet as the aroma indicated. Lots of roasted malt, milky/lactic and chocolate with a pine hop finish. A little too milky and not smooth on the tongue. Strong flavor, but a little too much on the lactic and pine. Okay.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours dark brown, near black, with 2 fingers of frothy dark tan foam. Surprisingly not over-carbonated, as were many, many of the past Cisco's I've had. Aroma is very roasty, burnt coffee and dark chocolate, hints of fig, and some herbal hoppy notes. Flavor relies on roasted flavors, lots of burnt chocolate and coffee throughout. Some molasses and figs poke through up front, followed by some hickory smoke and some interesting earthy, almost musty flavors. Finishes out with some subtle citrus and pine. With all that roasted bitterness, this beer stays very dry and drinkable, despite the 8%abv.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

05.22.05 750ml bottle thanks to MBA at Jimmack04 invitational. With much anticipation the bottle was opened and luckily nobody was killed. The beer poured nearly black under 16 inches of sticky tan foam. Eventually it settled down to the point everyone could try it...I had my sample an hour later and it was much more tame. Thin aromas are not so roasty but almost lactic. Lots of citrus, burnt graininess. Fruit salad syrup. Body, even after and hour, is fizzy and thin. Watered down coffee soda. Not the strongest of efforts from this MA brewer, it’s a letdown.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 6

Definitely a foamer. Luckily, I was quick enough to get it to the sink before it spewed everywhere, but that's because I caught it before the lid was fully off. Huge tan head eventually fades completely away. The black body has a bit of a gray cast to it. A bit of the imperial stout fruitiness on the nose over a little chocolate. The flavor and body are thin. Some chocolate, some lingering hop bitterness. Definitely not one of the fuller flavored stouts of this size.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

"Captain Swain", eh? I used to know a guy named Charles Swain -- a real tool, to be honest. Always wanted folks to call him "Chas", so over course we called him "Chuck". ;^) Anyway..., while that particular Swain was a waste, this particular Swain is just swell in my book.

Rather agressive in the carbonation department, but thankfully not too fizzy (read: gassy and filling). Head sticks around forever-and-a-day, but oddly not much in the way of lacing. Either way, that's all atop a very dark, near-but-not-totally black body.

Lots of raisin-ish highlights in the nose, perhaps a little something that reminds me of red wine too. Nothing too outlandish or avant garde, but appealing enough to fit both the style, and the type of beer I would not mind at all.

Surprisingly light (compartively speaking) in the mouthfeel. No thick and vinious motor oil here. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about bad-ass American Double Stouts and Russian Imperial Stouts having the consistency of the mollasses that sometimes shows up in the applicable brew kettle. But for this particular under-appreciated Stout sub-style, I want the best of both worlds -- girth and drinkability.

And I think this particular Foreign / Export-style Stouts does a good job here. Nicely roasty and vaguely chocolately (goes well with my snack of Oreo cookies -- yeah, I guess I am a freak, thanks!)..., with the hop profile nicely in the background. Nice to see an American brewer keep the hop additions of this sort of beer to the front of the boil, and any other additions to just the bare minimum to keep things nice and balanced. All in all, a real nice, nicely nuanced beer.

My only (quite trivial) complaint? A 750 of this is just a bit much for one person to work through in short order. Granted, this beer surely doesn't go South with the temps getting closer and closer to room temp, but it is still quite a bit to go solo with....

But besides that rather silly/pissy/whiney complaint, this really a very nice beer. Other brewers can take a few pointers from this one, for what it has..., and for it *doesn't* have.

Recommended.

Music: 1349's "Beyond The Apocalypse"
//TB

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Black appearance with a beige head. A smokey coffee and chocolate aroma. Some chocolate and raisins present in the flavor. A bittersweet taste with a sour background. Some nuttiness is present as well. Overall AYE AYE CAP’N!!!!

Aroma: 2 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

A big pop welcomed me upon opening. Then I poured a bit and it made a huge freakin mess. As I’m cleaning up for 5 minutes while the 750 ml sits in the sink, I come back to find it still foaming out of the bottle like one of those ash snakes you lit when you were a kid. All I’m thinking is that this bad boy is infected. Thanks to RB, I see that this is quite normal for this beer. I had to pour it into a freakin flower vase to get it to settle a bit. The taste is nice and roasty with some bitter chocolate. Not a bad stout at allo but Cisco gotta get this carbonation issue under control.