Because I have reached that point in life when most of it is behind me and not yet to come, I often approach things through a historical lens. Such is the case here. Coffee beers always bring back a memory of drinking New Glarus' Coffee Stout on Easter '96 at the Paradise Lounge here in Madison with my roommate. The way I recall that day, the beer was new and novel to me and I had a great day drinking and shooting pool with nary a thought about some guy being nailed to a cross.
But the Internet, that ever reliable font of truth, says that New Glarus' brewmaster Dan Carey first brewed their Coffee Stout in 1994. I remember drinking their Edel Pils that year but no coffee-laced stout. Apparently the Feds were unamused that someone had put caffeine in their alcohol (or was that alcohol into their caffeine?) and put the kibosh on Coffee Stout until laws were changed and labels printed telling consumers that there was caffeine in that beer as if "Coffee Stout" didn't already get that point across.
So perhaps I was actually witnessing the resurrection (ahem) of Coffee Stout that Easter after a brief and legally mandated hiatus. Regardless of the veracity of my memories, the Interwebs say that New Glarus was the first to commercially brew a coffee beer. I think it's rather neat that the ur-coffee brew is from these parts and is still available today as New Glarus seems to make it every 2 or 3 years. I also think it's a shame that this fact is often overlooked in discussions about the brewery. The ubiquity of Spotted Cow, the awards given to Belgian Red, and their beers' availability being limited to Wisconsin tend to overshadow Dan Carey's pioneering efforts to merge barley pop and java.
Despite being groundbreaking, Coffee Stout seems to never have gone on to be considered a paragon of coffee beers generally. Even I tend to think of Founders' Breakfast Stout first when the subject of coffee brews is broached. Not far behind, though, is Central Waters Brewing located up in Amherst in the middle of Wisconsin.
I remember the early days of Central Waters, which was founded in 1998, as being filled with a variety of good brews such as Ouisconsing Red Ale and Mud Puppy Porter, a favorite of mine. I fondly recall drinking Satin Solstice, an imperial stout, with friends and all of us enjoying it immensely. They also had a pale ale or IPA with a crane or similar bird on the label. A nice variety of styles that were tasty. And then they moved towards barrel aging.
I am not sure when this was but I'd guess in the mid-2000's and it soon became their trademark. They probably had the premiere barrel aging program in all the land. (Sorry Tyranena.) One of their barrel aged offerings was Peruvian Morning, an imperial stout with coffee that was aged in bourbon barrels. Then in c. 2011 there was a bad batch of Peruvian Morning. And then again the following year. And the year after that. The upshot was that the brewery stopped making it for a while. Despite this, Central Waters became lodged in my head as one of the leading makers of coffee beer.
However, long before the troubles with infected beer, Central Waters was brewing Brewhouse Coffee Stout, Peruvian Morning minus the time spent mingling with bourbon. I am certain that I have had it in years past but am only now getting around to writing about it. My can was dated 10/20/21 and the Central Waters website lists it as a seasonal so I presume you can find this stuff every autumn.
Unless you hold the glass just right, you just see this darkness in your glass that allows no light to penetrate it. It's like Sauron brewed the stuff. But, in reality, it was of a deep chestnut hue. I got a goodly-sized tan head on top that lasted what I think of as an average amount of time. No surprise that the first whiff was dominated by coffee. Subsequent sniffing revealed dark chocolate, roasted grain, and just a touch of stone fruit – think plum.
This beer has a firm fizziness to it that complements its medium-light body. Again coffee was at the fore on my first sip. Bitter chocolate eventually came through as did roasty grain flavor. As the beer warmed, that plum made its way to the fore when I swallowed as did some mildly bitter coffee and chocolate tastes faded. There was a modicum of herbal hoppiness on the finish which lent a little bitterness and a gentle eucalyptus-like taste. It had a fairly dry ending with some astringency to boot.
I loved the coffee and chocolate flavors here. This isn't surprising as both are the result of Maillard reactions. Just as Wiccans venerate the cycles of Nature, such as the changing of the seasons, I venerate whatever it is carbohydrates and amino acids do in Maillard reactions. I am drawn to those flavors like a moth to the flame. I suppose there is an art to mixing coffee and beer. My preference is for African coffees because they have more of an earthy flavor to them vs. South American coffees which taste brighter with more of a citrus edge to them. Central Waters does not specify the type of coffee used here. Perhaps someday I can sit down and figure out how various coffees of whatever roast work in beer.
Future gustatory projects aside, that stone fruit flavor was welcome but I appreciated that it was subdued. My only gripe is that I found the beer just a tad overly astringent. Still, this was a great brew.
Junk food pairing: This is a big, bold beer with lots of Maillard reacted goodness so pair it with something from the grill such as Dutch Crunch Mesquite BBQ chips or Herr's Baby Back Ribs chips.
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