Coffee in a Bottle
I opened up a bottle of Southern Tier’s Jahva tonight. Here are my thoughts on it…
Southern Tier Jahva
A / 4.43 rDev +8.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5
A cellar temperature bottle is poured into my Delirium Noël tulip. I don’t see a freshness date on the bottle, but since this is a cellarable beer, and I trust the bottle shop I bought it at, I’m not concerned.
A dark brown liquid fills my glass, atop which rests a brown foam head. Patches of clinging carbonation stick to the walls of the glass. The beer is opaque, so I can’t see if there is any rising carbonation. Swirling the beer about leaves a lot of film and foam lining the sides the the vessel. The foamy head dissipated rather quickly, leaving but a skim on top of the beer.
Lots of roasted coffee beans fill the nose of this beer. I can also detect some alcohol and a touch of chocolate sweetness. None of the scents are overpowering; it smells like a good coffee stout should.
I find this to be an incredibly easy drinking imperial stout; make it a coffee stout, and consider that I’m not a coffee drinker, and I’ve found one tasty beverage. Chocolate and caramel malts provide a good base that has lots of candy-like flavors without being any sweeter than what is necessary. The coffee flavor doesn’t really make itself apparent to me until I swallow. Even then, it isn’t too strong, and certainly not that bitter. I can taste alcohol in the finish as well.
This beer is not very sticky, which is surprising and welcome. Plenty of coat that has some of the coffee bitterness and candy sweetness Unsurprisingly, this beer is full bodied and has low carbonation.
This is a very good Imperial stout. I don’t think it would be a regular beer for me, simply because it is only available in a 22 oz bottle, and I am more of a 12 oz guy, especially with strong beers like this. But as a once in a while beer, this is a great choice. I’m a little curious what some age would do to it, but it drinks so nicely fresh that I’m not to upset that I cracked my bottle within days of purchasing it.
