Portland’s Baerlic Brewing crafts a variety of beers across a range of styles, many of which are released in cans, particularly the specialty ones. I’ve only had a handful of its beers and haven’t yet had the chance to visit the brewery in person, and that doesn’t look likely any time soon. (Jeff Alworth’s excellent “Coronavirus Diaries” series on Beervana has been profiling Baerlic among others during this time, recommended reading.)

No surprise that there’d be a pastry stout among the offerings, and I think it was while at The Bier Stein in Eugene that I came across Baerlic’s Pancake House Cocoa Maple Coffee Imperial Stout. So of course I was intrigued and had to pick it up.

According to the can, it was also brewed with lactose, and comes in at 11% ABV. (Untappd has it at 11.5%.) This particular can was packaged on December 23, so it was almost exactly three months later that we drank it.

A Google search revealed this Pancake House page on Baerlic’s site with the following description:

Just like your Great Grandpa’s daily breakfast at the Pancake House—hotcakes slathered in maple syrup alongside a bottomless cuppa joe. And seeing as he’s retired AF, maybe a squirt of chocolate syrup on top.

Appearance: Dark brown in color, inky almost to black, opaque. Head is light brown and dense, akin to whipped cappuccino foam. Good legs.

Smell: Coffee and cocoa towards a raw cocoa powder roastiness. A bit of crystallized maple syrup at the back. There’s some deep and rich malt roast, though nothing burnt or harsh. Nice dark chocolate aromas come through as it warms. A touch of alcohol esters but not hot.

Taste: Oh—big roasty punch up front with a dark chocolate and burnt coffee bitterness. Rich, ultra-dark-chocolate, what I would think of at 85-90% dark, and then there’s some boozy alcohol heat that blooms on the palate. Dark roast coffee syrup blends some chocolately sweetness with cocoa powder. Slightly burnt and astringent at the back. Big and rich, and bitter.

Mouthfeel: Nearly full-bodied with a big, roasty-burnt presence on the tongue that goes a touch astringent even as the alcoholic estery sweetness lingers. Big roasted malts in the finish.

Overall: Definitely interesting, and I couldn’t help but think that I haven’t been to a Pancake House restaurant in forever, but this does strike me as the experience of coffee that’s been sitting in the coffee pot too long and chocolate syrup drizzle—though I didn’t really get any maple character from it.