Planet Bean Coffee Stout
On a visit to
Cold Spring Beverages last summer, I picked up a bottle from a brewery called
Spring House largely due to the low-key, DIY style of the packaging, which was essentially a generic black on silver label with the name of the beer written in Sharpie. Spring House is a small brewery not too far from Lancaster, PA. From what I can tell, the brewery is set up inside a barn next to a house that I assume belongs to the brewmaster. I’m always happy to try what a small brewery has to offer.
The first beer we picked up was called “Planet Bean Coffee Stout”. It poured a lovely jet black. Both aroma and flavor are dominated by the coffee. I would put this down as a fairly straightforward coffee stout. There’s a lot of tasty medium roast coffee and dark roasted malt flavors, but a somewhat disappointingly thin mouthfeel and watery finish. Worth checking out if you’re a fan of coffee stouts.
Spring House Cosmic Monster Belgian-Style Quad
On our most recent trip to Cold Spring, I picked up a bottle of Spring House’s Cosmic Monster, which is described as a “Belgian-Style Quad” on the sticker attached to the back of the bottle. I’m aware that “quadrupel” is not exactly a well-defined style, but generally I expect a dark, strong ale that may or may not have dark fruit flavors but is always rich, sweet, and malty. The first surprise this beer had for me was the color — it’s a pale copper beer with a thin, quickly disappearing head rather than the dark, dark brown I typically expect from something called a quad. The next surprise is the aroma, which is super sweet fruit, not unlike a Jolly Rancher. Turns out this beer is brewed with a blackberry puree and then aged on raspberries. Flavorwise, the blackberries and raspberries are prominent along with candi sugar. Manages to be fairly interesting for a beer so incredibly sweet. The alcohol is fairly well hidden for an 11% ABV beer, though there is a bit of a burn as you get to the bottom of the glass. I would say this is probably best as a dessert beer shared with friends. Still not sure why they called this a quad.
