#coffee ipa

[thedaily-beer]

Two Brothers Red Eye IPA on tap at Miller’s Pub in Chicago. A 3 of 4. Pretty standard pine and citrus hop profile in the nose with a little lighter body than usual. The coffee notes are there, but quite faint - mostly just a slightly fruity/roasty quality in the body. The coffee adds a nice little twist to an otherwise standard IPA.

[alcoholdoesntsolveanyproblems]

HOP & BEAN / 志賀高原ビール（長野） コーヒー豆を使ったダブルIPA。アロマからは濃厚なコーヒー、フレーバーも強烈なコーヒーの香り。まるでコーヒーを飲んでいる感覚……ではない。苦味の中にスパイシーさととてもジューシーなホップのフレーバーが感じられる。ボディはさすがに重め。苦味もかなり強い。そんなにバランスは良くないかも。ややもったり。

[beertengoku]

{:en}Be Easy STANd Coffee Shake IPA by Be Easy Brewing{:}{:ja}ビーイージーブルーイング：ビーイージースタンドコーヒーシェークIPA{:}

{:en}Be Easy STANd Coffee Shake IPA is a 6% American IPA from Be Easy Brewing, based in Aomori, Japan. It’s part of their bottled and draught lineup, though its availability is unknown at the time of writing. The beer was conditioned on freshly roasted coffee beans just long enough to add a coffee aroma and flavor without getting in the way of the hops, though which hops and coffee used are…

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[thedaily-beer]

Stone & Modern Times Wizards & Gargoyles Hazy Coffee IPA (Picked up at Windmill Farms). A 3 of 4. A really nice integration of the coffee with a relatively assertive tropical/citrus hop profile. Smells distinctly of coffee roast alongside the tropical characteristics. The body is a little weird with the astringent roast in the middle of the body alongside the fruity qualities, and this finishes bitter and clean. The coffee works really well in this, although it is a bit weird.

[auraeseer]

An ongoing education . . .

[auraeseer]

I was gonna say I’m on the fence about this ale, but . . .

[beerswax]

Southern Bay Brewing Company - Coffee IPA...Obliteration - Black Death Horizon

Merry Arsemas. May the Krampus shit in your mouth. 

On to the beer and the music. 

I love coffee and I love beer. I doubt I could cut either of them out of my life. However, as a combination they’re not always a winner. I’ve had a few coffee/beer hybrids and they don’t always work. From memory Mountain Goat made a good one (and I think I reviewed it...) but I’ve had a few, notable American ones, that I just think are gross. The coffee usually clashes with the hops and those two strong flavours just really don’t work well together.

That being said, this one isn’t bad. Southern Bay Brewing Company are a bunch down in Geelong whose beers I’ve not really had much to do with, but based on this drop I’ll have to try out their other wares. Apparently they used a Brazilian fruity-style coffee for the mix and it was a wise choice. It seems to pair up quite nicely with the IPA profile. It’s not an overly hoppy IPA either - they could have gone the full West Coast gambit and knocked your head off but the IPA part of the beer is quite restrained and it allows the sweetness of the coffee to come through before the hop bitterness kicks in. The aroma is like a mix of my coffee plunger the next morning as I’ve forgotten to rinse it out (not an unpleasant smell, trust me!) and sort of grassy notes as well. It’s also surprisingly easy to knock back - almost sessionable if you ignore the very blatant flavour profile. I’m still not a huge fan of this style, to be honest, but I would happily have another. 

This was paired with another fairly obscure band - Obliteration from Norway. They specialise in dark, old school, atmospheric death metal with a fair bit of thrash influence (and half of the band comprises members of Nekromantheon, another old school thrash outfit who do Slayer almost better than Slayer, which makes sense if you don’t think about it too much SHUT UP). I only have one album of theirs, this one. On first glance it’s easy to overlook - it looks like a stoner record with that uninspiring artwork, and the name Obliteration is fairly generic as well. But that would be a mistake because this is some of the finest death metal in the modern era. There’s no happy Entombed-style rock-infused death metal here - it’s evil and unrelenting, moody and disturbing, but melodically interesting and engaging. There are seven tracks on this 40 minute outing and every one of them is fascinating. A review I read on this album said that it’s familiar but unsettlingly different at the same time. You can pick their influences - early Autopsy and Morbid Angel to name a couple, and with wah-drenched solos that would make Kirk Hammett irritated that they’d stolen his schtick (and yet are much more enjoyable to listen to...) - but they warp these influences into something that isn’t a simple rehash. Strange melodies wreathe through this record on top of the aggressive riffing and it’s a joy (well, you know what I mean) to hear. You feel a bit nasty after listening to this record and yet you still want to hear more. Which, really, is how a genre like death metal should make you feel after listening to it, right? I have yet to listen to their other stuff and I should get around to it, ASAP.  I have a lot of envy for musicians who can write this sort of evil music and still engage the listener thoroughly. Highly recommended. 

[chuckmao]

Beer of the night: King Harbor Brewing company "Steep Faces IPA" This was a pleasant surprise. Two of my favorite hops (mosaic n citra) along with cold pressed coffee. Sure can smell the coffee. A collaboration with Epic Brewing.