947. Sonder Brewing – Otto Tiramisu Stout

Posted By kkozlen on Mar 28, 2020 | 0 comments

We continue to be “sheltered in place” at home, due to the Coronavirus, and we’re starting to lose track of what day it is. I do realize it’s Saturday, and I spent the day working on a display case I’m building for my shot glass collection, cleaning up my man cave, and binging on Ozark on Netflix. After dinner, I had a couple chocolate chip cookies, which probably encouraged me to grab this one out of the beer fridge. My sister picked it up for me a few months ago during a trip to Cincinnati, when she stopped at the brewery. It said it was canned on 11/9/2019.

Location: Poured into a tulip shaped glass from the can at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 8.1% ABV, ~320 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s deep black in color, and I couldn’t see anything through it when held up to the light. It has a finger thick, tan colored head that fell to a thin layer over the top after a few minutes. It has a dark roasty aroma that has dark chocolate and coffee-like notes.

Taste & Feel: The body is surprisingly light-medium body for a bigger beer (8.1% ABV), and the mouthfeel is fairly smooth, with a slight crispness from the carbonation. The flavor up front is lightly roasty with hints of dark maltiness behind it. The sweetness comes up a bit in the middle with a dark chocolate flavor and hints of coffee in the background. A roasty bitterness comes up during the finish with some coffee flavors., which last in the aftertaste for a couple minutes.

Food Pairing: This beer has a good amount of roasty-coffee flavors, so I’d probably pair it with something lighter that wouldn’t compete with these flavors too much. I’d probably go with an open faced turkey sandwich, a pork tenderloin, or some other white meat.

Overall Impression: I was impressed with the lightness, smoothness, and drinkability of this beer given that it’s 8.1% ABV. Although it was called a tiramisu stout, it had a very roasty flavor with a good amount of coffee flavor. I expected some hints of vanilla or marzipan, but the roasty-coffee flavors dominated it. Overall, it was a good beer, and I appreciate my sister getting it for me (along with a crowler of their Imperial Otto Stout, which I haven’t cracked open yet).

My Rating: