What comes to mind when you think of drinks to get you through the day? I'll bet you think of two things almost immediately: coffee (to get you up in the morning) and beer (to help you relax in the evening).
Not only are these drinks a delicious necessity for the masses, but they are also very similar. Both involve passionate and skilled techniques. Whether it's fine coffee or craft beer, both need to be carefully roasted and brewed to achieve the best possible taste in the final product, and both have a passionate following around the world.
But is it possible to mix the two together? Coffee and beer, beans and grains, baristas and brewers - they have always been separate, but no longer so. This article looks at how coffee beer is made and the future of this incredible drink.
The coffee beer brewing process
If you're intimidated by the idea of brewing a coffee beer, rest assured that it's pretty much the same as making a normal beer. If you can master one of them, then you can definitely do it.
The process still follows the usual malt-making (roasting), saccharification, boiling, and kegging or bottling. In reality, coffee is just a flavouring agent.
So how is coffee brought in?
Most brewers bring coffee into their beer by cold extraction. Cold extraction involves immersing ground coffee beans in cold water, which takes 24-48 hours. It is then passed through a filter to remove all the coffee grounds. The result is a liquid coffee concentrate, often called cold brew, which is added to the beer prior to the bottling or kegging process.
But why do brewers choose cold brew over hot brewed coffee or espresso? There are two reasons.
Acidity
Coffee extracted with hot water is more acidic and does not work well with beer.
Oil
If there is oil in the beer, it will affect the conditions for it to retain its glossy foam. However, cold extraction suppresses the amount of oil in the coffee extract. Brewers should also avoid using dark-roasted coffee beans, as they usually contain more oil.
The last thing you need to consider. During the boiling stage of brewing, hops are added to the brew as a bittering agent. Bitter beer, bitter coffee? You see the problem here, don't you?
The trick is to find the right balance between the bitterness of the coffee and the bitterness of the hops. Depending on the roasting characteristics of the coffee beans used (light, medium, or dark roast), many brewers use the amount of hops to control the bitterness and make the coffee contribute to the flavour.
Coffee beer varieties
Not all coffee beers are the same. Stouts, pale ales, and lagers are the most common types. The dark, full-bodied flavour of these beers makes them compatible with most coffees. Even within this range, there are many variations.
Boston Brewery's Black River Coffee Stout is lighter than most stouts. It has a citrus and coffee aroma with a light malt flavour on the tongue. Russ Meyer of the Boston brewery says: "He never even thought of mixing the two until he met a barista who was as passionate about coffee as he was about beer. Then the idea of mixing coffee and beer came up; it took a lot of experimentation, but we ended up with a coffee beer that we like.
Coffee beers are usually more bitter than regular beers because the IBUs of the stouts, porters, and pale ales they are usually based on are usually in the 20 to 60 range. However, the bitterness of these coffee beers is not without its advantages. It is a great match for many desserts to balance the bitterness of the beer.
What is the future of coffee beers?
With many breweries around the world experimenting with coffee beers on a daily basis, it seems inevitable that this drink will soon become a major player in the beer market. With the popularity of beer, will it change the way we look at beer? Finally, to avoid overconsumption of caffeine, using an easy and quick caffeine calculator is a good option.
