It's not that unusual to find coffee in a beer, although in Australia at least it has tended to be found in dark ales, porters or stouts, beers that often have some coffee like aromas or flavours from their malt bill. It is pretty unusual to find coffee in an IPA, which is the case in this collaborative effort from Mountain Goat and roasters Seven Seeds. After playing around on the pilot brewery, this is the first batch to make it into the public realm.
Hold it to your nose and there's little to distinguish it from the brewery's straight IPA; the coffee appears late on the palate, gently building alongside the hop bitterness. It's more coffee bean than coffee cuppa, blending elegantly with the hops and lending the beer a drier finish than the sweetness of the nose would have you expect. Highly reminiscent of The Kernel's Suke Quto IPA The Crafty Pint was lucky enough to sample with its brewer on a recent trip to London - and that's no bad thing.
UPDATE for bottle release: The coffee seems more prominent, still in the fruity, perfume, green bean sense, but unlike the trial batch on tap, it's to be found on the nose as well as playing its role with the bitterness.
Published July 22, 2011 2011-07-22 00:00:00
