How does one celebrate the entrance to your craft beer market by a highly touted brewery? By drinking one of their beers you obtained elsewhere, of course. Prairie Artisan Ales is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and makes some widely touted beers. We happened across this one in a trade and look forward to drinking it. This is a collaboration brew between Prairie and BrewFist out of Italy, and is an imperial coffee stout with coffee, cacao nibs, and yes, spaghetti. As a brewer, I'm scratching my head at the addition of the spaghetti. I can only think it might plump up the ABV and mouthfeel a bit on this. But also, I'm intrigued to know how they did this. Did they put uncooked spaghetti in the mash? Did they use cooked spaghetti? Did it go in sometime other than the mash? These are things a homebrewer ponders.
Yes, I put it in a coffee mug. It's imperial. It has coffee. The mug is kind of tulip-shaped. It works in my mind. The only problem I see is that the mug isn't clear, so you can't get a great idea as to the color and appearance of this. That, and that I didn't have this for breakfast. Will you just have to take my word for it? Perhaps. This poured a deep, rich brownish-black color that is opaque and had a decent amount of light coffee-colored head. The aroma on this is wonderful: coffee, coffee grounds, bittersweet chocolate, and just a hint of vanilla and booze in the nose. The taste of this is fantastic: Fresh coffee, espresso, bittersweet chocolate and a hint of vanilla all come in to play throughout the taste, with the coffee and chocolate flavors being prevalent throughout the taste. But then there is something else that sneaks in, something different. You can actually taste the spaghetti in here. It's noticed toward the end, and it tastes vaguely like semolina pasta. It just kind of hangs out, doesn't detract from the chocolate and coffee flavors going on, it just adds a bit of a different taste. This is moderately carbonated and really good, but a bit thin in body. It is fairly sweet, despite the bitter flavors going on in here. I want this for breakfast tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Monday. Can we please make that happen?
4.6/5 caps
-Jennie
I hate Sundays. They are harsh reminders of the impending hell that must be suffered until, once again, Friday comes around and leads you into the shortest part of the week. This is intriguing, brewed with spaghetti... hmm... I've heard of random things being brewed into beer (boxes of cereal, bacon. oysters, rocky mountain oysters), but I've never heard of pasta in beer. Eh, why not?
I am drinking this out of the bottle, so unable to tell color. Jennie basically nailed the nose (coffee, chocolate, vanilla and boozy notes) on this 8.7% ABV brew we can't obtain in Ohio. The taste is coffee, more coffee, some chocolate, then more coffee. As the coffee-heavy taste starts to fade, there are some vanilla notes that become more noticeable. Decent carbonation, smooth drinking. Finishes slightly sticky (but not sure if it's sweetness or hoppy, as this does have 60 IBUs).
It should also be noted that this is an 11.2 oz bottle with a note on the label that says "Product of Italy". Those Italians and their 331.2ml bottles...
4.6/5 caps
-Nathan-
Food pairing: This would be fantastic poured over your favorite chocolatey breakfast cereal
Cheese pairing: Porter cheese
Music pairing: The Carpenters, "Rainy Days and Mondays"
No comments:
Post a Comment