Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )
So yesterday was just kind of one of those days. Long day at work. Went directly to Tattered Flag and had me a flight. Spending the night at a veteran owned brewery with several veterans who work there, on Veteran’s Day sounded like a fantastic idea. For veterans they were doing free burger or half rack of ribs as well as a beer, and they just put on tap a bunch of veteran / military themed beers brewed along with two other veteran owned breweries in the area – Cox Brewing Company and Newfangled Brew Works.
The flight I had was Tattered Dreamz (collab with Wolf Brewing Co.), Twin Mount .50, Government Overspending 2019, Seven.Point.Six.Two and then this stout – 556 Stout by Cox Brewing Co. The collaborations each got headlined by one of the breweries: Twin Mount .50 is Newfangled Brew Works first, with collab credits to Tattered Flag and Cox Brewing, Seven.Point.Six.Two is credited to Tattered Flag with collab credits to Newfangled and Cox, and the 556 Stout is credited headlined by Cox and collab credits to Newfangled and Tattered Flag.
This review will be centered around the 556 Stout. Tomorrow I will likely be doing the full flight review (and will link to this; and have this link back to that; so if you check this article out in two-three days you’ll see a link to the flight article).
I will break out a spoiler and say this was my favorite of the bunch. The whole flight was really good though, with a great Belgian, a couple wonderful IPAs, and a good high ABV sour as well. Its just that this one blew me away the most and thus why I’m giving it an individual review.
Beer: 556 Stout
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
Collaborators: Newfangled Brew Works and Tattered Flag
Style: Stout – American
ABV: 5.56%
IBU: No
Untappd Write-Up: Vet Collab Stout with Newfangled and Tattered Flag
For those who don’t know, and I haven’t had a chance before this to do a Cox Brewing Company (CBC) review, here is some basic background info on them:
Cox Brewing Untappd
Cox Brewing FaceBook
Cox Brewing Twitter
Cox Brewing Website
Their Untappd page lists them as having 90 unique beers, 6,505 ratings, and a global rating of 3.68. Their bio on the page reads: Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.
They are a must-stop see at every Renaissance Faire brewfest and Littitz Brewfest. At the Lititz Brewfest they even sponsor to have a home brewer who they selected at the home brewer’s portion of the event to come brew for a day with them. The owners are great people and are very active in the home brewing community and are big help to many home brewers in the area.
So let’s get into this delicious beer.
Appearance is dark black like a good normal stout, with nice lacing, and a good head. The head is thin white with porous bubbles that are spaced and varied. The lacing lasts on the glass and the look stays the same under light.
Aroma is a good caramelized stout. Heavy malts, nice aromas, you get mostly the heavy malts and a caramel sweetness to it.
Taste is what really drives this. It is immediately amazing. Wonderful flavor profile, wonderful mouth feel, wonderful taste, wonderful notes and characteristics, and …. wonderful any other cliche catch-all terms that you want to use. Its sweet, its malty, its caramel, its dark, its heavy, its low key and not boozy, and only a 5.56% ABV (get it… … …you know… since the name is 556… they made sure to work the OG and sugars to make it 5.56% ABV). This all combines perfectly and into one wonderful stout. A perfect cold weather stout, a perfect warm weather stout, a perfect all year round stout. But more importantly, a perfect Veteran’s Day stout.
My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: (None yet. Unfortunately there’s only been 8 total ratings, so obviously too soon to get a global rating.)
I certainly can’t recommend this beer enough though. Make sure you find your way to Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, or Cox Brewing Company, where it will be on draft at all three of these locations. This is an amazing beer. Some even got to try it as a sampling at the 717 Armory yesterday, a very cool thing and another collaborator with the breweries on these beers and making Veteran’s Day so positive for many veterans in the area.
We here at The Beer Thrillers want to thank and salute all veterans who have served, and have given the biggest sacrifice possible, as well as to all those who still serve our country and defend its ideals and people. We thank and appreciate you for all you have done, for all you do, and for all you have given and sacrificed. Thank you.
Please make sure you venture out and support these great veteran owned breweries. They deserve it, and you deserve some great beer, so check them out.
Cheers All!
-B. Kline
