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Beers that feel their beans

Coffee freshly brewed into the bravado of a cold brewski adds a punch of flavor.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published January 24, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] Biere du Cafe is an aromatic mix of coffee, chocolate and beer brewed at Dunedin Brewery.

The 3 o'clock droopies were setting in as a long day extended endlessly up U.S. 19. I needed something to stay awake, and cast my eyes about for a Starbucks or other caffeine pumps.

No, what I needed was a beer.

Or rather beer and coffee. And I was soon at Dunedin Brewery, where proprietor Kandi Bryant pulled me a glass from the tap on a fresh keg of coffee beer.

The aroma of fresh-brewed coffee jolted me awake while the glass of Biere du Cafe was still on the bar in the microbrewery 937 Douglas Ave.; (727 736-0606, www.dunedinbrewery.com). The nose of coffee lasted longer than the head on the near black ale, but the taste was rich and deep, roasted coffee with notes of dark chocolate. It was clean, crisp hoppy beer and also, unquestionably, coffee flavor.

Yes. Coffee beer, the newest beer flavor since Belgian raspberries, is here and sold in brew pubs and bottled by microbreweries. It's an oddball specialty, but a growing category, especially in winter. Twenty-eight coffee beers entered the judging in last year's Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

The reason is a natural collision of two trendy boutique industries, but the motivation is not just to find a beer for breakfast or brew a twofer hit of America's favorite liquid addictions, with a buzz and a jolt.

More likely the idea comes from imaginative microbrewers who play with all forms of brewing and connoisseurship and, indeed, making drinks from beans and grains.

Dunedin brewmaster Mike Bryant got interested in good coffees in the early '90s and was intrigued with cold-filtration brewing of coffee.

"The flavor was milder and more delicate," he says.

So when he tackled a coffee beer, he sought out coffee experts at Joffrey's, picked out the beans and commissioned the blend. He took the roasted beans, ground them with chocolate nibs (roasted cocoa beans) and suspended them in a mesh bag in a vat of Dunedin's brown ale.

Other brewers have mixed beers with fresh brewed liquid coffee and employed other techniques.

Yet the first and oldest hints of coffee and its colleague are found in the big, dark range of stouts and porters heavy with robust malts. In the basic balance of any beer, the sharp, crisp yin comes from hops, while the rich, sweet yang is from the malted grain. So whimsical brewers can mix in tart lemongrass or juniper with the hops, and the spectrum of flavors from malted barley can have roasted toasty notes, caramels and cocoa, which gives them a chocolate flavor.

The newest coffee beers contain the real thing, complete with caffeine. Don't forget that. "It's a great beer to have when you're starting out the evening," Bryant says. "But one night around 12 we were about to go home when a customer came up raving about this beer and said he had to buy me one." Bryant didn't sleep at all.

Tasting notes

Coffee beer

The following ales, porters and stouts have a flavor of coffee or chocolate to them. Some come from actual coffee in the brew; others pick up similar roasty notes from the barley malts used, but may contain no coffee or caffeine. Look for them at better liquor stores and beer specialty shops.

- Dogfish Head Chicory Stout, Rehoboth Beach, Del. Tall, dark and spicy, with rich cream texture and big nose and taste of chicory, coffee and chocolate. For breakfast or over ice cream.

- Dunedin Brewery Biere du Cafe (draft). Made from the traditional brown ale, infused with ground roasted coffee beans and chocolate. Dark brown with a light head of vanishing foam, but a nose from across the room like fresh-perked coffee and a rich, clean flavor with a crisp finish.

- Fuel Cafe, Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee. Thick tan head on this shames the crema of the ordinary barista. Rich with strong coffee flavor in thinner texture. Like an iced Americano.

- Old Engine Oil, Harviestoun Brewery, Scotland. Dark enough to justify the name, deeply flavored with heavy malts, more chocolate than coffee notes. Good balance and long, crisp finish. Who needs Guinness?

- Rogue Mocha Porter, Portland, Ore. Mostly chocolate and spice in the nose, and stronger on the finish.

- Yeti Imperial Stout, Great Divide, Denver. The abominable empire strikes back. No actual coffee here, but this is rich, thick stuff - from the nose all the way through. Creamy head and creamier texture, roasty smoky caramel flavors. Drink with a fork and a friend (or three). Get back, Kahlua.

Chris Sherman

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 10:51:11]