Cold-Steeped Coffee Schwarzbier

5% ABV

Roaster: Climpson & Sons

Coffee: Brazil – Fazenda Esperanca

The idea for Cold Brew came to our brewer, Kit, whilst out on a dog walk with a black coffee gone cold. It occurred to him that despite coffee tending to be dry, as an ingredient it is most often used in big, sweet beers. We chose a black lager to take on this trope and attempt to develop the full flavours we associate with coffee beers but in a light, dry and drinkable style of beer. We started out by selecting black and brown malts that would contribute coffee and chocolate notes but minimal burnt or bitter flavours. To further reduce any potential harsh or astringent tones from the malts, we cold steeped all the dark grains in the mash tun overnight, running that off into the kettle before mashing in the remaining grist. Theres a delicate hopping of Amarillo and Ekuanot to bring some high-end fruit flavours to the beer, but by our standards this is reasonably low in quantity to drive the rich malt character. Once the fermentation process began to calm down, it was time for the coffee to shine. We cold-steeped 25kg of Brazilian Topazio & Rubi from Climpsons Coffee, which has contributed a host of fudge, caramel and soft fruity coffee flavours to the beer.