Coffee and beer — humanity’s favorite legal mischief, two ancient potions that have fueled empires, bad poetry, long mornings, and longer nights. They don’t always share the same glass, but when they do, the universe tilts a little. Light leans into shadow, sunrise forgets where it left its keys, and time itself feels like it’s running on espresso foam and roasted barley. One minute you’re blinking through headlines, the next you’re sipping something dark and velvety that hums like a midnight jazz record at brunch. Reality blurs. Awards get mixed up. Morning behaves suspiciously like evening, and no one seems particularly bothered by it.
Which is why Peaks & Pints throws open the curtains on Craft Beer Crosscut 2.27.17: A Flight of Black Coffee — a lineup where caffeine and fermentation shake hands and decide rules are optional. It’s the rare permission slip to chase roasted aromatics and chocolate-shadowed depth at 11 a.m. on a workday, a gentle rebellion brewed for anyone ready to let the day start a little darker, a little richer, and far more interesting than plain old drip.
Eel River Single Origin Mocha Stout
6% ABV, 20 IBU
Based in the small town of Scotia in Humboldt County in northern California, Eel River Brewing specializes in craft brew and was the first certified organic brewery in the country. The brewery reached out to its neighbors resulting in the Single Origin Mocha Stout — produced by Eel River Brewing and packed with Humboldt Bay Coffee Company’s single origin Peruvian roast and Dick Taylor Chocolate’s single origin Madagascar cacao. The result is a rich, creamy milk stout.
Paradise Creek MooJoe Coffee Milk Stout
5% ABV, 30 IBU
The milk stout, also known as an English sweet stout, emphasizes a malty sweetness with hints of chocolate and caramel. Some versions, like Paradise Creek Brewing’s MooJoe, add lactose for more body and softness. The Pullman, Washington brewery takes its beer one step further by cold conditioning it with fresh ground coffee from Bucer’s Coffee House across the border in Moscow, Idaho. The result is a smooth, light stout with coffee and chocolate notes and slightly bitter on the end.
Lagunitas High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout
12.2% ABV, 39 IBU
Lagunitas brewed High West-ified Imperial Coffee Stout with beans from Petaluma Coffee and Tea Company, then stashed it in High West whiskey barrels for two to 10 months. It’s 100 percent barrel-aged, which means they didn’t blend the barrel-aged beer with non-barrel-aged beer (something a lot of breweries do to even out the flavors). It smells the way this style of beer should: like coffee and whiskey, and the first sip is a wave of velvet followed by a strong coffee bite. The whiskey rears its beautiful head, too, adding a peppery spice and some heat. We pick up some earthiness from the wood, as well.
Founders Breakfast Stout
8.3% ABV, 60 IBU
Founders awoke early and brew this stout with flaked oats, chocolate, and two kinds of coffee beans. This imperial stout pours jet-black with a thick, tan head that strongly resembles latte foam. In fact, coffee really shines through in this beer, giving off a strong aroma of fresh roasted beans, caramel and roasted malt. If you like your coffee black and your beer before noon, this is the perfect way to start the day.
Ballast Point Coconut Victory At Sea
10% ABV, 60 IBU
Based out of San Diego, Ballast Point started when a few guys with a love for good beer and good fishing decided to open up shop and sell their own brews. Victory at Sea looks like breakfast — an abundantly black liquid fills the glass while a powerful-looking head the color of brown sugar and the consistency of pancake batter slowly retreats to a thin but stubborn blanket. Bitter medium-roast coffee flavors play at the sides of the tongue while a sweet coconut character build at the front. Toast and molasses make appearances as well, and alcohol heat rolls down the throat, noticeable but not overpowering. As the drink warms, coconut becomes more pronounced, lending a sweet finish to counteract the bitterness of the coffee beans.
