Topic Archives: Coffee
Funky Buddha Last Buffalo in the Park
Funky Buddha Last Buffalo in the Park.
Coming soon to the brewery’s new “The Living Barrel Series” in 2017.
Style: Imperial Porter (w/ Coconut. Coffee. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 22oz Bottles. (Limited Release)
LastRelease: December, 2016
Next Release: Late 2017
PIC: Beer Street Journal
Allagash James Bean (with bourbon & coffee) returns
Allagash James Bean has finally been bottled. The beer has been a draft-only offering in the past.
The base beer for Allagash James Bean is a Belgian-style strong ale with pure white cane sugar, that has been infused with cold pressed coffee after fermentation. The brewery chose Ethiopia Amaro Gayo beans for the brew, which boast flavors of blackberry and blueberry. The finishing touch on this big beer is the bourbon barrel aging.
Have you ever put bourbon in your coffee? If you do, drink this. If you don’t. Drink this. Coffee is bright and the bourbon a beautiful compliment to the boldness that James Bean is. Coffee, vanilla and bourbon dominate the aroma. Flavors of caramel, coffee, bourbon, and oak present themselves throughout this full-bodied beer. Think coffee, oak, caramel, and bourbon with a touch of berry. Start to finish.
Bean is further proof that coffee and bourbon work together (it’s been our breakfast of choice for years). Bourbon and coffee dominate this beer, but you can’t count out the Belgian-style golden ale base. Thats’s where the complexity really shines.
Allagash James Bean will be available 750 milliliter bottles debuted in early July at the brewery in Portland, Maine. Distribution has been slow and steady throughout the summer.
Style: Belgian-style Strong Ale (w/ Cane Sugar, Coffee. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Hops: Tettnang, Hallertau
Malts: Allagash 2-Row Malted Barley Blend
Availability: 750ml Bottles, Draft.
Bottle Debut: 7/2/16
Latest Return: April, 2017
10.4% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
Founders KBS rises again. One of the best years we’ve ever tasted
Founders KBS. Still one of the most widely known beers in America. As we roll into the spring filled days of April, KBS is making its national return.
In case you are someone that has never had the joy of Founders KBS, make it your goal this year.
According to Founders, Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) is the most sought after beer they produce in their Grand Rapids, Michigan home. (Counter argument: whisper the letters CBS near a beer geek and see what happens.) The phenomenon can be traced back to over a decade ago.
Around 2001.
Over the years of covering KBS releases at Beer Street Journal, we’ve mentioned little pieces of the story of how this beer came to be, and it all starts in 2001. Co-founder Dave Engbers was eating chocolate covered espresso coffee beans that a taproom regular had given him. After washing the beans down with a porter, the meshing of coffee, chocolate, and beer nuances gave him an idea.
2003.
The brewery’s other co-founder Mike Stevens called the Jack Daniels distillery and asked for used bourbon barrels to fill with beer. According to Founders, that was a bit of a silly thought in the early 2000s. Those first barrels were filled with Breakfast Stout, another fan favorite, and left to age. The duo were close to mimicking the flavors in found in that taproom epiphany from the previous year. Something was still missing.
The birth of KBS.
We’d like to tell you there was some sort of “Birth of Christ” moment that brought Kentucky Breakfast Stout into the world. Ultimately, like every brewery tweaking recipes it was a few simple changes – the addition of espresso beans and chocolate to a new imperial stout base. The beer phenomenon was born.
The meteoric rise to fame eventually sent the barrel-aging underground to a nearby gypsum mine that Founders uses to age KBS for a full year. What was once just two barrels has grown to 1,000s in order to quell the thirst of the barrel-aged loving horde. Even with a football field’s worth of oak, that still won’t be enough.
2017.
Write this down. The 2017 edition of Founders KBS is stunning. Stop listening to some know-it-all that will try to tell you that this beer wasn’t as good as it was (insert year here.) With any barrel-aged beer, there will ALWAYS be minor flavor fluctuations. This isn’t pale ale we are talking about here. This year’s release is big on vanilla flavors, that turn over to a symphony of chocolate and coffee, finishing with a lingering alcoholic heat. This is the good you need in your life.
Founders KBS debuts nationally once again starting April 1st in both bottles and draft. New for 2017 – 750 milliliter bottles.
Do us a favor. Don’t sit on this beer. Don’t wait for some special day in the future that may never come. Open it with friends or loved ones. No better time like today.
Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Coffee. Chocolate. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, 750ml Bottles, Draft.
Latest Return: 4/1/17
11.8% ABV
Image: Beer Street Journal
Proof that raspberries & coffee work. Mikkeller Fruit Face is a beautiful beginning
The world renown Mikkeller has finally found a home in San Diego, and is canning no less. It didn’t take much convincing that what was going to come out of the the San Diego spot would be gold.
In January, the first limited release debuted, Mikkeller San Diego Fruit Face Raspberry Coffee.
First of all, in our book Mikkeller is synonymous with words like unique, weird, and creative. If you have a few hours, go ahead and read over founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø insane body of work. It will take you a while.
Kicking off 2017, some of the first beers emerging from Mikkeller San Diego are in cans. Among the first was an incredibly dank Uklar IPA, and this ruby hued beauty – Fruit Face Raspberry Coffee. Maybe it’s just us, but we never thought of combining raspberries and coffee. Turns out, we should have done it a long time ago.
There is an esoterically addictive qualitiy to this edition of Fruit Face. Each tart sip starts with fresh raspberries and ends with a hint of fresh ground coffee beans. A real stunner that you can’t put down. Good thing this beer is just 4% ABV.
With everything in life, there’s a catch. Fruit Face Raspberry Coffee is part of Mikkeller San Diego’s Small Batch Series, and unfortunately very limited. Releases like this debut every weekend throughout the year and will rarely stray far from San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland and Los Angeles.
So much good coming out Mikkeller’s U.S. spot this year, and we’re just getting started.
Style: Berliner Weisse (w/ Raspberries, Coffee)
Availability:16oz Cans
Debut: January, 2017
4% ABV
PIC: Beer Street Journal
Drink this every 3,000 miles. Hi-Wire 10W-40 Imperial Stout
Expect this one to pour like motor oil. Meet Hi-Wire 10W-40 Imperial Stout.
This decadent imperial stout is brewed with fresh vanilla beans, dark chocolate from Asheville local French Broad Chocolates, and Organic Dynamite Roasting Company coffee beans. The sum of the parts means one big decadent way to drink your dessert.
The beer truly delivers on flavor. Coffee, chocolate and vanilla in a big stout is heaven to us, but what we can’t get over is the branding. Sure it would be easy to find some creature from Greek mythology, or an obscure Shakespearian phrase, combine with some comic book art, and launch the beer. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. In this case, when we say this beer pours like motor oil, we have a can that follows suit. This release is just the start of something new for Hi-Wire Brewing.
…coffee accentuates the cocoa and adds slight roast to balance out the vanilla in this dessert beer.
Hi-Wire 10W-40 Imperial Stout became available in 16 ounce cans starting January 6th.
Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Cocoa Nibs, Vanilla Beans, Coffee)
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft.
Debut: 1/6/16
8% ABV
AleSmith Nibs & Beans Speedway Stout debuts
Alesmith Nibs & Beans Speedway Stout, a chocolate, vanilla bean, coffee laden edition of the venerable imperial stout, is on sale now.
A few times throughout the year, Alesmith uses their nationally known imperial stout as a brewer’s playground. This round, Speedway Stout goes full-on dessert beer. The brewery has added vanilla beans, cacao nibs, and locally roasted coffee. What we’ve heard is that these variants are fantastic. Now is the chance to find out for yourself.
RELATED: AleSmith releases Speedway Stout in cans
Each quarter we stretch our creative muscles and brew a variation of our year-round imperial stout. This quarter’s variation, originally created for the popular 3 day Speedway Grand Prix event in our Tasting Room, features vanilla beans from Madagascar and Papua New Guinea, cacao nibs from Brazil and Madagascar, and locally roasted Colombian coffee from Swell Coffee Co. This beer balances the aromatic quality of the vanilla beans, the nuttiness of the cacao nibs, and the earthy fruity notes of the coffee with the roasty, chocolatey flavors of our imperial stout.
AleSmith Nibs & Beans Speedway Stout will be available in 750 milliliter bottles. The brewery is pre-selling this online now, $22 dollars per bottle.
Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Vanilla Beans, Cacao Nibs, Coffee)
Availability: 750ml Bottles
Debut: 2/18/17
12% ABV
An espresso bean infused chocolate peanut butter porter: DuClaw Sweet Baby Java
Coffee meets chocolate meets peanut butter. DuClaw Sweet Baby Java is ready for the big time.
To date, the Maryland based brewery already has two peanut butter beers in their arsenal. The first – Sweet Baby Jesus!a, a chocolate peanut butter porter. Sweet BJ’s success opened the door for an even stronger brew peanut butter concoction, For Pete’s Sake. Both are a dream for peanut butter lovers. This spring, look for DuClaw Sweet Baby Java.
A few years ago, brewery founder Dave Benfield was at a beer event where Sweet Baby Jesus! was run through a Randall (think of it like a French Press of sorts) filled with coffee beans. The discovery he saids – was awesome.
The roasty flavor of coffee, peanut butter, and chocolate blended perfectly. We quickly kicked a half barrel. Since then we’ve regularly paired coffee with Sweet Baby at DuClaw events.”
Since that day, the brewery has been experimenting with various methods of infusing coffee in order to bring this beer into full production. A few dozen batches later, DuClaw Sweet Baby Java was ready for the big time.
Look for Sweet Baby in 12 ounce bottles and draft through spring, 2017.
Style: Porter (w/ Coffee. Peanut Butter, Chocolate.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Spring Seasonal.
Debut: February, 2017
?? ABV
Image: DuClaw Brewing
