Appearance

The Khoffner Tobacco Is In My Blood has a bearded skull smoking a cigar on the front, with beer crossed off for the word tobacco. The bottle is slightly taller than normal, and instead of a bottle cap has a flip-top seal. The beer pours dark with a tan fluffy head.

Aroma

What a funky aroma! My immediate impressions are wild yeast with a lactose chaser. Nothing about the aromas here tell me I’m about to drink a stout. But the aroma has me intrigued to try my first sip.

Flavor

The flavor profile hits me as a wild yeast sour, rather than the sweet notes of a milk stout. You get a big hit of interesting funky sour up front, some mid palate vegetal notes and then some mild sweetness to finish each sip. I’m very surprised by the flavor profile. Some mild cocoa comes through near the end of each sip as the beer warms up, along with some caramelized brown sugar, cinnamon and other baking spices.

Balance

The sour nature of the flavor profile overwhelms all the other notes here.

Finish

As the wild yeast sour flavor gives way, there is a short sweet finish with hints of chocolate. That finish evolves to include caramelized brown sugar and cinnamon.

Overall

It’s not often I come across a beer that baffles me in a review. I went into the review expecting an unusual milk stout, and what I ended up with was something completely different. I think the Khoffner Tobacco Is In My Blood is better than the overall score might indicate. Although it’s very outside the flavor map of a milk stout, the beer itself is still going to have a lot of appeal to beer geeks if only because of it’s surprising profile. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to try this one out.

John McTavish

SCORE

6.33

Cost/Point

N/A

Scoring System

Personal Beer Review: Khoffner Tobacco Is In My Blood