If you ever get the chance to visit Milwaukee, you absolutely have to stop by Lakefront Brewery. They are well known for their excellent tours, hilarious tour guides and ample beer samples. I have a number of friends who don’t drink but have been on these tours and still had a blast. But let’s be honest, everything is better with a beer in your hand so don’t skip the samples!
For this duel I grabbed Lakefront Brewery’s Fuel Cafe, a coffee stout that I’ve had at least hundred times. I was looking for something very different to go up against it. Over in the import section I stumbled onto a beer that looked appealing in Belhaven’s Black Scottish Nitro Stout. So we have a few different aspects going up against each other here, a nitro, a coffee stout, a local, an import. If you can’t tell, I’m excited to see how this goes.
HopDuel Survey
| Better label | Belhaven Scottish Nitro Stout |
| Better aroma | Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe |
| Better taste | Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe |
| Better finish | Belhaven Scottish Nitro Stout |
| Winner | Belhaven Scottish Nitro Stout |
Tell us about it
What a duel! Two stouts presenting totally different flavors to challenge the palate. For the aroma, it’s hard to overcome the delicious coffee smell of Lakefront’s Fuel Cafe, so it was the easy winner there. The taste could have gone either way, but the finish was unmistakably smoother, richer and creamier with the Belhaven Black Scottish Nitro Stout.
I’d highly recommend both of these beers, and I’m pleased to report my hometown favorite Lakefront put up a good fight against such a strong contender. If you’ve had either of these beers, let me know what you think in the comments below.
