Photo courtesy of Vue Weekly

For most of the readers of this website, the notion of coffee in beer is old hat. You are well aware of the effect of adding some coffee to a dark porter or stout (or even the occasional IPA, right Mikkel?). The sharp roast and dark burnt character can accent a dark beer quite nicely.

But for most consumers, this is a novel phenomenon. The two seem like they should be on opposite poles of the beverage family. One is a morning upper, the other an evening relaxant. When I add a coffee-infused beer to a tasting event, I regularly get initial responses from the guests of “coffee and beer?? What??”. I find many of the doubters are people who have not sampled a lot of stouts or porters, and so are less aware of the roastier side of beer flavour. Once they have a taste, they quickly come to realize the combination can work.

So, when the editors of Vue Weekly told contributers that they were doing a coffee issue, I jumped right in. I saw the opportunity to pontificate about the potentials of coffee and beer. You can find the resulting column here. My goals for the piece were fairly modest – introduce consumers to the possibilities of coffee in beer so that they might consider purchasing an example. I spend a bit of time discussing how to infuse coffee in beer and then look at three good examples, ranging from the more mild to the more assertive.

I start with Mill Street’s Coffee Porter, which I find quite an enjoyable beer. The coffee roast and chocolate malt notes blend well together. Without the coffee I suspect this would be a fairly boring beer, but with it the beer becomes quite interesting.

The second beer is Yukon’s Midnight Sun Espresso Stout. I did a stand-alone review of it a couple years back, so didn’t go into any great detail about it. However, I can say here that it remains one of my favourite coffee stouts. I really appreciate the balance they find in the beer, which is generally one of their hallmarks. I am glad they went away from the 1-litre bottle in which it used to be packaged, going for the more friendly six-pack.

The third beer was going to be Mikkeller’s coffee-infused IPA, but it is no longer available in Alberta, so talking about it would be irresponsible. To be honest, I was rather underwhelmed by that beer, but I really wanted to show that coffee wasn’t just for stouts. I remember wondering where the coffee went, which suggests that the effect of coffee in beer is partly influenced by the roasty malts in the beer. Instead, I highlighted Beer Geek Breakfast, which is worthwhile for a variety of reasons, including its name (and the excuse to highlight the bacon-infused version). I discuss the original version (although I find the bourbon barrel-aged version preferable). It is a good closer because it is such an intense beer. Intense coffee, intense body and roastiness, and intense alcohol  It completes the continuum from mild to intense. Just like coffee.

I enjoy opportunities to demonstrate just how versatile beer is. That is one of the great hurdles beer faces – getting people out of the rut that beer is only suitable for sporting events and frat parties.