West Coast Venti Drip is a 5% coffee stout from West Coast Brewing, based in Mochimune, in Shizuoka, Japan. It’s part of their canned and draught lineup, though its availability is unknown at the time of writing. As the name suggests, West Coast Venti Drip is brewed with roasted coffee in the form of Ethiopian Hambela Wamena beans sourced from the local coffee roastery “Crear Coffee”.
West Coast Venti Drip : At A Glance
Basics
- Alcohol : 5%
- Style : Coffee stout
- Hops : –
- IBU : –
Sale Information
- Availability : –
- On Sale : From December 2021
- Size : 500 ml
- Price : From 1,000 yen
Aroma & Taste
- Notable Aromas : Large coffee aroma with low chocolate aromas. Little stout flavour came through.
- Notable Tastes : Smooth with a roasted coffee flavour. Light roasted acrid coffee body follows through when it warms up.
West Coast Venti Drip : Aroma & Taste
As many of you know, I love my stouts, I love my coffee, and I love my coffee stouts. Combine them, and you could end up with an amazing beer.
West Coast Venti Drip isn’t.
That’s not to say it isn’t a good beer. I mean, it looks like how a coffee stout should be – a pitch black body, with a large, frothy tan head that leaves streaks down the side of the glass, letting you track how many sips, or perhaps gulps, that you’ve taken to drink it. The aroma is all coffee – and while that sounds great, West Coast Venti Drip doesn’t evolve past that step. When it’s chilled, it smells like coffee. When it’s warm, it smells like coffee. And in between? Yep, that’s right, it smells like coffee. I was hoping for some more traditional stout flavours to come through – perhaps some roasted malt, some chocolate, maybe a touch of creaminess. Just something to let me know that I wasn’t drinking coffee flavoured alcohol.
The body was immensely smooth to begin with, and that same coffee hit of flavour came to the forefront and stayed there – just lingering on the palate, begging to be forgotten in the hope that something else could come through. But that coffee flavour, while I loved it, was just so strong that nothing else really came through until the West Coast Venti Drip was almost at room temperature. Then, and only then, did I get some light roasted coffee acrid notes come through but by that time, my body just assumed it was drinking coffee flavoured alcohol.
West Coast Venti Drip : The Bottom Line
Reign in the coffee flavour by some way, and let the creaminess and stout shine through in a coffee stout.
West Coast Venti Drip : Where to Buy
West Coast Venti Drip can be bought online at the following places:
- West Coast Brewing Online Store
- 151L
- Arome
- Beer Owle
- Beer Volta
- Fujikawa Saketen
- MMM Booze Shop
- Urano Saketen
