I’ve come to a revelation after visiting Cycle that there must be some real divide between whether people like syrupy style stouts or not. Personally, I near hate Dark Lord and stouts like it, and feel like Cycle is a million variants of the same kind of syrupy style. There are other prominent examples of this (Bruery) as well which are widely loved. For me they are too boozy, and that syrup like texture throws me off.
Anyway, don’t mean to just hate on beer I don’t like, was more wondering whether there is actually some type of clear divide on taste buds or something?
I’m the type who loves the Expedition style stout, or North Coast Rasputin, to give some prominent examples. But typically can’t stomach the Dark Lord or Cycle DOS type variants. It would be interesting to divide all these into some sort of list, if even just in my head. I feel like I’d be better served avoiding these $30 bottles of Cycle or like types of beer. For example what is Toppling Goliath? I haven’t had their stouts. Syrupy or creamy?
Anyway, I may not be articulating myself well here obviously. I’m writing this post while drinking a (great) coco Zhukov at Cigar City in Tampa before my flight. Thoughts?
Creamy:
resembling cream in consistency or color.
“beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and creamy”
synonyms: smooth, thick, whipped, velvety, of an even consistency, rich, buttery
I can’t get how “creamy” defines stouts, and especially how this is the opposite or alternative to syrupy.
I agree with @fiulijn in that I don’t think you are pointing out a dichotomy here; I disagree with him because I think I know what you mean by creamy.
fwiw, I’ve had Mornin Delight, which was absolute genius thick mapleness (I like maple in stouts, but this was a standout even among great maple stouts), and I’ve had Assassin, which was the most disgusting cotton candy marshmallow pure sugar overflow you can possibly imagine, but was much better than this description sounds. At least it had a texture like you were drinking a cloud. or marshmallows. or cotton candy, if that’s your thing.
Blending the two was quite good again, which probably hinted at how KBBS must taste.
Maybe that’s it. Definitely like the dry roasty flavor a lot more, the ones that are well-balanced but maybe more subtle like Expy.
I think I really mean on the consistency side. The ones I like have a more creamy mouth feel than syrupy. Perhaps slick vs. syrupy as well is what I mean.
It’s actually strange as some with actual maple in them aren’t necessarily syrupy in texture or consistency. I’m trying to think of more examples - it’s been a while since I had CBS for example so can’t remember the texture there.
I know I also love Ten Fidy as a non-syrupy, more roasty one. And Abraxxxas, Bible Belt, regular Bomb! Sometimes when a good beers adds barrel aging, it becomes more syrupy and I don’t like it as much. I hate all the 50/50 eclipse barrel variants, though I’ve never had the original base beer - maybe i’d like it more.
I also think when I say syrupy I mean oily in some cases, though there is a slight difference I’d say. In terms of texture, like you have beers that are creamy, oily, syrupy or slick.
I’m tiring of pastry/syrupy stouts. The problem is that I like them individually when I have them, but man they’re not exactly something I want to continue to seek out, especially huge, boozy ones that retain all that syrupy sweetness.
I love it when I get the chance to have a nice, robust or just non-sweet stout without any additions like vanilla, fruit, extra sugars, etc.
