Do Yourself a Favor, Have a Cadillac Mountain Stout

This evening I was lucky enough to try my very first Cadillac Mountain Stout (I know, I know, I live in Maine and I’m just now getting around to it? Sorry…), the offering from the famed Bar Harbor Brewing Co. which has been consistently ranked as one of the top 50 beers in the U.S., is the top-rated American-style Stout on BeerAdvocate.com and, as described by ratebeer.com,

Earning 97 out of 100 points, this [Maine] brewed stout won the rare platinum medal at the World Beer Championships in Chicago in December 1995. Beating such world class favorites as Guinness, Sierra Nevada, Shipyard’s Bluefin and Murphy’s Irish Stout, Bar Harbor Brewing’s Cadillac Mtn. Stout was the surprise of the competition. Cadillac Mtn. Stout has come in first every year since 1995 and in 1999 was chosen one of the top 10 beers in America. Cadillac has earned the highest scores of any Maine microbrew so far, according to the Beverage Testing Institute.

Cadillac Mountain Stout is an adventure all by itself; available in bottle-conditioned 22 ounce “bombers” with a nearly 7% ABV, Cadillac Mountain Stout truly is a meal in a glass. Despite that, it goes down more smoothly than any other stout in recent memory. As a judge’s tasting notes from the 1995 World Beer Classic read, Cadillac Mountain Stout,

slides down like black velvet.

I could go on and on about the seemingly never-ending cornucopia of tastes, sights and smells of this brew but I’ll leave that to the well over 400 reviews at BA.com. Instead, for the locals: you can find Cadillac Mountain Stout, a beer Men’s Journal called the “Best hard-to-find beer in America”, in either Downeast Beverage Co. on Commercial St. in the Old Port, or Maine Beer & Beverage Co., which is located in the Public Market House in Monument Square. For only $4.50 a bomber, do yourself a favor and get one first thing tomorrow (that’s what Wednesdays are for, right?)!