I’m a week behind on this one, my latest print article for The Bulletin: Coffee, beer converge. An overview on combining beer with coffee, with a focus on Rogue Ales‘ Cold Brew coffee beers and Wild Ride Brewing‘s Stand Up and Shout Vanilla Coffee Stout.

Locally, Redmond’s Wild Ride Brewing Co. produces Stand Up and Shout Vanilla Coffee Stout, offering it as part of its year-round lineup. In addition to vanilla beans, the brewery adds medium roast Kona King coffee, at the rate of one-half pound per barrel (which equates to 10 pounds per batch on its 20-barrel brew system).

I reached out to Wild Ride’s owner Brian Mitchell to inquire about the challenges of brewing with coffee.

“The primary challenge is making sure we find a true balance between the coffee and beer, or in other words making sure that the coffee added doesn’t overwhelm the beer, but instead complements the beer,” he wrote via email. “Another challenge is keeping the coffee from adding too much of an astringent bitterness to the beer, which can be created from the acidity of the coffee.”

As for Rogue’s Cold Brew ales, the IPA and blonde sent to me present an interesting contrast to the coffee stouts. Rather than dark roasted notes, the coffee aroma tends toward fresh and nutty in both, drawing out similar qualities in the underlying malts.

Though it’s not in the article, I should note that whenever I think of coffee beers I always think of Buzz Beer from “The Drew Carey Show” which I now realize probably predates most of the coffee beers on the market…