Cracked Open the First Off-leash Coffee Stout Last Weekend

Hey – just a follow-up here to the Off-leash Coffee Stout post. It’s been over two weeks since bottling now and I was able to test out one of the brews last weekend. It turned out awesome! The coffee flavor is present, but not as much as you’d expect given there is a full pot of coffee in this 5.5 gal. of beer.

Though this is technically the second all-grain batch I’ve brewed, it’s the first completed all-grain beer of mine I’ve consumed (still lagering the first all-grain batch). I don’t want to toot my own horn too much (Ok, ok, I do. Why else would I have this blog?) but to me it tasted exactly like anything you’d be able to purchase commercially. With extract batches, I can always tell there is a certain thinness to them that makes them seem kinda fake. They don’t taste “bad” at all, but just not… “real.” One year after starting to brew, I’m really really happy with the direction my homebrews are heading.

Below is a pic of the six pack I packaged up for my buddy Jim who helped out on brew day. Met up with him at Cooper Pub for dinner Monday. I kinda like that place. Had a great lamb shank I’d order again, a Boddingtons Pub Ale (that to my horror is actually an InBev product), a New Belgium Ranger IPA and a Summit EPA. Of the three, I actually liked the Boddingtons the best. I’d had it out of a can years ago but this was the first time on tap. Very smooth. Good for winter.