Hey friends, it’s been awhile since we’ve done one of these, and we definitely haven’t done one at the new brewery. This Saturday, Jan 24, we will host a bottle release at our new brewery on S Presa for Local Coffee Stout.
Before I get into the details of the release, let’s get into the details of this beer:
While we were undergoing construction of our new brewery at 2000 S Presa St, we noticed some activity across the street in this building at 2001 S Presa.
After a little asking around, we found out that San Antonio’s esteemed coffee shop, Local Coffee, was setting up shop with their new roasting facility, Merit Roasting Company. We immediately perked up on a couple of levels: we were pumped that continued positive development was happening down here in Roosevelt Park, we were psyched that we’d have a place to get world-class coffee every morning, and we were absolutely thrilled at the prospects of collaborating on some coffee beers. We’re not the type to throw around the term “no-brainer” a lot, but a potential collaboration with Merit fit the bill. Fortunately, Merit was just as curious and excited about us as we were about them. Merit owner, Robbie Grubbs, would poke his head in from time to time and we developed a relationship built on mutual respect for each other’s craft. Soon after, the idea of for our first collaboration, Local Coffee Stout, was born.
As we began to develop the recipe for Local Coffee Stout, our head of brewing ops, Jason Davis, was inspired by Merit and their passion for letting the beans drive the flavor profile of the coffee rather than the too-typical practice of the roast dominating. Merit provided us with a cold extract of lightly roasted El Origen coffee from Honduras. Sampling the concentrated extract gave us a deep appreciation for Merit’s craft: a brew that was full of fruit flavor (tamarind, dark fruits) without overpowering us with burnt astringency that has become the trademark flavor of mass-produced coffee grounds. We blended the extract with our stout in the cellar. Our own experience taught us that adding coffee on the hot-side of the process would result in changes to the coffee, which would have negated Merit’s efforts. The result is a coffee stout that is a little different from most coffee stouts, because this coffee is different from most coffees. Virtually all of the roast character of the finished beer comes from the malt, not the coffee. Rich coffee notes abound upon first whiff and playfully dance with the residual sweetness of the malt. Coffee stouts aren’t exactly innovative these days, but can often still be quite special. We are proud of the one we’ve created and hope it stands among the other great ones available today. Check out the video below for a more detailed look at the development and production of this beer.
As for the release:
In addition to this weekend’s release, Local Coffee Stout will be distributed throughout San Antonio in limited quantities. We will release 30 cases (360 bottles) this Saturday starting at 1:30pm. In Freetail tradition, we also invite folks to enjoy a bottleshare prior to the release starting at 10am. Important details:
- LOCATION: The new brewery, 2000 S Presa St, San Antonio, TX 78210
- 360 bottles
- $9/bottle
- Limit to be determined based on number of people in attendance at 12:30. We will have a wristband system in place
- Bottleshare beginning at 10am
- All bottles from the bottleshare will be picked up at 1:25pm in preparation of Open For Business at 2pm.
If you have any other questions, please find us on our company Facebook, or you can ask me on twitter @beermonkey. (The comments section of our blog gets spammed too heavily for us to really be able to respond to comments, unfortunately)
Cheers,
Scott.
