Westbrook 4th Anniversary Chocolate Coconut Almond Imperial Stout

One of the best feelings in beer collecting is finding that rare beer you have been going store to store looking for. Depending on the level of effort you put forth and whether you have had the beer before, the act of chasing it down a lot of times can be more satisfying then drinking it. The more effort and miles you put in, the more special it can become. This process occasionally creates unrealistic expectations for the right occasion to drink said beer. This is what I ran into when I finally obtained a bottle of Westbrook 4^th Anniversary Stout.

In some areas Westbrook 4^th Anniversary Chocolate Coconut Almond Imperial Stout just sits on shelves collecting dust, waiting for someone to purchase it. In the area of Upstate NY I live in, Westbrook 4^th was only available for a couple of hours making it quite the challenge to obtain. When I got one of the last bottles I felt a tremendous swell of pride. I was excited to have it and was certain I would be drinking it immediately. But then a week went by and I felt that the beer was so rare that I had to save it for a special occasion. Then a month went by and it was still sitting the fridge. Then another month passed, and it finally hit me I need to drink that beer now before any of its interesting flavors fade away prior to drinking it. So instead of a special occasion I decided to treat myself to this beer on a random Thursday night watching cheesy horror movies--an occasion I viewed just as good as any.

Westbrook 4^th Anniversary Chocolate Coconut Almond Imperial Stout pours a rich, thick black with a dark brown head that slowly dissipates. The aroma is incredible, full of dark chocolate, vanilla and roasted malt. Simply, it smelled like chocolate milk for grown ups. And while the aroma was delightful, I was disappointed to not detect any coconut but hoped it would come through in the flavor. Unfortunately worrying about finding coconut in the flavor was the least of my worries because this beer is a mess. Much like the aroma, chocolate, vanilla and roasted malt are noticeable right away before a dry, nutty, espresso-like finish. While that may sound good initially(it is), the sloppiness of blending those flavors becomes intolerable by the end of the bottle.

One of the best parts of drinking a truly complex imperial stout is allowing the beer to warm so the flavors typically start to open up and more subtle flavors are noticeable. Here, when the beer warms, it becomes an overly sweet, clunky mess. It seems Westbrook 4^th does not seem to know which flavor it wants to showcase, but it certainly does not try to showcase the coconut. In this beer, warm or not the coconut is pretty much non-existent. To a point, I honestly do not know why coconut was on the label. The almond flavor is there but that falls victim to the poorly blended bigger flavors of the roasted malt, sweet chocolate and vanilla. Basically this is a beer that tries to be too complex for its own good and it suffers because of it.

Westbrook 4^th Anniversary Stout is an example of a rare beer that arrives with a bunch of hype but fails to live up to the expectations. For this particular beer, chasing it down was by far the most interesting part about it. With the ingredients involved there was a lot of potential for it to be great but unfortunately the clunkiness of its' craftsmanship left a lot to be desired. I hope to see other coconut stouts hit my area in the future and hope someone can get this style of beer right.

Overall Westbrook 4^th Anniversary Chocolate Coconut Almond Imperial Stout gets a 2.5/5. While it is not terrible, it is a mess of big flavors that do not seem to fit well together. A prime example of a big stout that failed to live up to its potential.

Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional　

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Thanks for reading. Sláinte!