Jahva (Imperial Coffee Stout)
Packing a surprising amount of hop flavor, Southern Tier's Jahva still delivers all of the coffee that it promises! It's very dark, almost-black mahogany body is capped by a creamy head of dark tan that hold fairly well and leaves abundant spots, splashes, and sheets of lace about the glass as it goes. The aroma expresses dark roasted malts, but not so much coffee. It's rich and roasty, and nutty, and even somewhat sweetish, but always with a floral, grassy, and spicy hop edge. There's a bit of candyish fruitiness as well, which is probably coming from residual malty sugars and yeasty fruitiness. In the mouth it's decidedly medium-full in body with a creamy edge. There's a tingle from the median carbonation, but the girth of the residual malt runs rough shod over that in the end. Coffee appears upfront in the flavor, brash and bright, with notes of dark roastiness and nuttiiness. That's backed by a dark malt that's got a decent center of caramel to it, and the hops are completely infused throughout. Yeasty fruitiness, oddly, is able to make it's way through all of that bravado, and it ends up being coffee/dark malt/hops/yeasty fruitiness.... ending in lingering roasty dark malts with a smear of grassy and leafy hops and splashes of yeasty berry-like fruitiness. It lingers on the palate for quite some time, alternating between coffee, dark malts, hops, and yeasty fruitiness... immensely rich and enjoyable! Certainly worth seeking out for purveyors of the roasted bean, but also for people who simply enjoy a complex dark beer. The coffee is not over-done here, and it's otherwise a superbly rounded large stout. There's nary a hint of alcohol throughout, and the full presence of hops and yeast gives it great depth. For a coffee beer, EXCEPTIONAL!!!