We are going to sample another brew from their new sampler pack, which is called Snow Pack.  It is their Coffee Stout.  If you read my earlier beer blog posts on this West Coast Legend craft brewery, you know the rich history of Sierra Nevada.  If you have not, please, read them to get to know this craft brewery.  Let us get into this Coffee Stout.

It has a jet black color with a creamy tan color head. The aroma has a slight chocolate and a heavy coffee notes. The taste has a burn malty and coffee notes with a dry chocolate to coffee aftertaste. It is a nice sipping beer.

Here is a description from the beer bottle:

Our coffee stout combines malt flavor and roasty coffee for notes of baker’s  cocoa dark fruit and espresso in a complex blend of warming flavors.

A cup of joe and a bold beer can thwart the winter cold, so we blended them for the ultimate warmer.  Our Coffee Stout is a fusion of dark roasted malts and rich cold-brewed coffee for layers of bittersweet, fruity, dark chocolate and carmel-like flavors.

Here is a description from their website (www.sierranevada.com):

Coffee and craft beer are both drinks that inspire passion in the faithful. As we dreamed up ideas for a winter beer, they seemed destined to come together. There isn’t much that’s more comforting on a cold day than a cup of great coffee, and even more so when blended with the rich flavors of a dark and roasty stout. Our Coffee Stout brings the best of both brews with flavors of baker’s cocoa, dark fruit, and a bittersweet roasted malt body.

While the exact origins of porter are hazy, the development of stout is more straightforward. By the 1700s bolder, high-alcohol versions of any style of beer were referred to as “stout” or strong. By then, porter was far and away the most popular beer style in the British Isles, and clever breweries began advertising the stronger versions of their beers as “stout porter.” By the late 1800s, regular porters had fallen out of favor and stout porter, or simply stout, took their place. There are many different varieties of stout ranging from the light bodied, low-alcohol Dry Irish Stout to the viscous, rich and strong Imperial Stout.

Malted barley generally falls into two camps: base malt and specialty malt. Base malt is highly modified malt that is responsible for producing the bulk of the fermentable sugars in the beer. Specialty malt is malt added for its flavor, color or effect on the body and mouthfeel of the finished beer. Specialty malts are typically produced by kilning and/or roasting barley. Caramel malt is made by placing germinated barley with a high moisture content directly into a roaster. The resulting malt produces unfermentable sugars during the mashing process, adding sweetness and body to finished beer. Roasted malt is base malt that has been placed in a roaster similar to a coffee roaster to produce deeper, darker, baker’s cocoa and espresso flavors like those common in a porter or a stout.

Here is their website and twitter addresses:

Website:  www.sierranevada.com

Twitter:  @sierranevada

Closing, I was pretty excited to see Sierra Nevada was making a coffee stout.  Their normal stout is beyond underrated on the craft beer market.  Sierra Nevada does not make a bad beer.  All their beers are beyond better than most craft breweries.  This coffee stout is a nice gateway beer to stout and coffee stout world.  The coffee beans are not overpowering like most coffee stout.  There is a nice balance that makes it uniquely drinkable for the beer style.  I highly recommend this beer.  Go get some!  Drink it!  Enjoy it!  Metal it! \m/

Cheers!

Bill DJ Weiser

Email:  djweiser16@gmail.com

Twitter:  @djweiser

Instagram:  @djweiser13