Over at the Hops and Barley booth, the home of Samuel Adams for the 2011 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, one of the eight Samuel Adams varieties will be Cream Stout.

Cream Stout is a very dark brown, almost black beer with a milk chocolate colored head; hold it up to the light and you can see some lighter brown tones around the edges. This stout has a roasted scent with a slight bit of chocolate mixed in. The taste is similar; chocolate and other sweetness mixed in with a roasted, but not overpowering, flavor.  For being called a Cream Stout, I was expecting the beer to be a little thicker; it has a slightly thin feeling.

While reading about the beer online, I found a video about Cream Stout from the Samuel Adams website. It's well done and is quite worthwhile as it goes into the history behind milk and cream stouts. (You may run into a Samuel Adams page asking for your birth date to verify your age when clicking the video link.)

Overall, I'm a bit surprised with this beer being so good. Samuel Adams is generally known for making a decent, but not outstanding, representation of a style, but I'd say this is a better beer than Guinness Extra Stout. If you like your beer dark and are looking for something besides a Guinness Draught, stop by the Hops and Barley booth and give this one a shot!