Sam Adams Cream Stout

Sam Adams Cream Stout is one of those beers I’ve been eyeballing for some time, but just never bought for some reason or another.  Well, I finally broke down and bought a six-pack – here’s what I thought!

Initially, I was fairly excited to try this 4.9% ABV sweet stout! I love sweet stouts! I think cream stout = sweet stout and might even = milk stout but I’m not 100% positive on the milk stout thing.

As you can see from the picture, it created a very lively head that I’ll admit, overfilled my glass!

Checking the Sam Adams website, we’re told that their “brewers use generous portions of roasted chocolate and caramel malts as well as roasted unmalted barley to impart a fullness of body, a roasty malt character and rich, creamy head.”

Its a really dark beer for sure – just about black in color with a nice tan-colored head.  I’d agree to a point with their assessment as roasted malts play a role in the aroma of this beer, but to me it was more of a grainy-dominated aroma.  Oats, then malt, then bitter chocolate that carries over to the flavor as well.

Mouthfeel was a bit on the thin side, more so than I would normally like for a Stout to be and it was definitely a disappointment for me, especially because I had 5 more bottles of it!

So, here we have a Sam Adams beer that I hoped would be another favorite from their lineup, but the Cream Stout just could not pull it off.  That’s OK, there are other beers from Sam Adams I won’t buy anymore, but there are a bunch that I really like too so it balances out.  (Can’t win ‘em all, right?)

It isn’t that Cream Stout is a bad beer – its not.  It just not that interesting beyond looks and there are better sweet stout choices out there.  Too bad because like most Sam Adams beers, you can find this stuff just about anyplace, but you won’t be finding it in my fridge once these bottles are gone.

Rating:

Scott – TheBrewClub