Wide Awake Buzz

~ Meg

Week 39 in The Year of Drinking Adventurously. Coffee Beer.

Two more things I love: coffee and beer. (No surprises, right?) This is not about firing up the automatic drip and mixing your Folger’s with your Miller Lite, however. This is a byproduct of the craft-brew movement. Coffee beans are actually used in the brewing process. Either after the initial boil or before going into secondary fermentation, the wort is infused with coffee or coffee beans. The technique seems to vary from brewery to brewery. Any way the combination is achieved, it works beautifully with with some of the darker brews like stout, porter or even dark brown ale. The coffee beer adventure falls on this week because Thursday, September 29 is National Coffee Day.

Our guide had a list of fantastic microbrews to choose from but in my quest to support my local brewery –Freewill, in Bucks County, PA– my coffee beer of choice is their C.O.B. available only in the fall and winter.. Here’s the description from their website:

C.O.B – 8.3% ABV  Fall/Winter Release
This unique and complex seasonal ale is free will’s best-selling seasonal. This very strong brown ale has a delicious malty backbone with notes of caramel, brown sugar and graham cracker. Aged on a unique and complex bean that provides additional peppery and molasses like flavors in addition to the classic coffee presence in the aroma and on the palate.

Nice, right? There is one problem with the coffee beer, something I discovered by accident. There is enough caffeine in some of these beers to actually keep you up at night if you’re sensitive to it. However, in the spirit of “write drunk, edit sober” — at least a coffee beer won’t put you to sleep at your keyboard!

I know Lula probably enjoyed this week’s brew, she used to live in the Pacific Northwest- coffee capital of the USA.

Published by Meg

Easily amused, never bored and constantly distracted. My creative pursuits include writing, drawing, painting and photography.

37 thoughts on “Wide Awake Buzz”

  3. M and I volunteer every year at a craft beer benefit and this year the shop we helped had a beer brewed with coffee and Godiva chocolate. They touted it as their breakfast beer. Kegs and eggs! How can that be bad?

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    Reply

      1. I had a chocolate beer for the first time this last trip to Ocracoke. It was pretty good. Speaking of, if y’all do a day trip to Ocracoke while on the OBX, check out Zillie’s. As an adventurous drinker, it’s right up your alley.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Oh, damn. That stinks. I suppose they can’t fool around with it too long though. And if you need to get back on the blood thinners, better to deal with it aggressively. Hope this is the last of it!

        Liked by 1 person

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