New barrel-aged coffee stout won’t overwhelm your palate

Barrel-aged coffee stouts are not new. Infuse coffee into an oatmeal stout, or some similar dark beer, age it in a bourbon barrel or comparable choice, and let it rip. Giant bottles of the big, dark beers litter bottleshop shelves, especially in the fall and winter.

But what about barrel-aging coffee beans? It’s an idea that 5 Rights Brewing owner and head brewer R.J. Whitlow has been kicking around since stumbling upon it at San Diego’s Mostra Coffee. Mostra, which has provided coffee for beers from stalwart breweries like Alesmith and Stone Brewing, has been aging their beans in barrels for years now. The process infuses the beans with the flavor profile from the barrel, with the alcohol burning off in the roasting process.

So when Skip Rock Distillery’s Ryan Hembree offered Whitlow usage of one of his used nocino barrels, Whitlow knew it was time to try barrel-aging beans. Whitlow worked with Dave Stewart, of Snohomish’s Vista Clara Coffee, to get 3 pounds of fresh coffee beans from a farm in Santa Elena, Costa Rica, and delivered them to Hembree to be placed in the used nocino barrel.

Then he waited. Three months later, the coffee beans were extracted and sent back to Vista Clara, where Stewart lightly roasted the beans. Whitlow created a cold brew with the beans and then infused it into a version of the brewery’s Mr. O Don’t Regret Coffee Oatmeal Stout, made specially for the brewery’s upcoming anniversary.

In making the base stout, Whitlow dialed back the roasted barley and backed off the bitterness to give the coffee beans a clean palette (or palate) to work. The result is a stout that has an aroma of booze and coffee but a clean, light flavor and finish.

What this beer isn’t is a big coffee stout that will overwhelm your palate. The coffee flavor is very nuanced and the nocino flavor is there as well, but you’ll have to search for it. The best part? At half the ABV of most coffee stouts, you’ll easily be able to drink two and keep your wits together.

Mr. O Nocino Coffee Oatmeal Stout is one of two beers 5 Rights is releasing this weekend to celebrate the brewery’s third anniversary. It’s been a trying year for the Marysville brewery, which recently announced that the building project it had been working on over the past year in Lake Stevens is no longer moving forward.

Whitlow is still brewing out of the family’s garage in south Marysville, but the brewery is no longer pouring beer there and instead is relying on bottleshops and taprooms to carry its beer. Due to that, to celebrate the brewery’s third anniversary, Whitlow is asking folks to head to the six locations (see below) pouring the brewery’s anniversary beers on July 7 and enjoy them there.

The other anniversary beer is an imperial IPA made with a whole bunch of hops, including Citra, Amarillo, Mosaic and Sabro hops. Whitlow said it’s more of a West Coast IPA than a hazy, but still fruit forward.

Also on this week’s taster tray:

Hella Lazy Brut IPA, Lazy Boy Brewing/Hellbent Brewing: A collaboration between Everett’s Lazy Boy Brewing and Seattle’s Hellbent is a brut IPA dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo and Mosaic hops. Release party is July 11 at Hellbent Brewing, 13035 Lake City Way, Seattle. Available July 11 on tap at both breweries.

DRINK THIS

Anniversary Mr. O Nocino Coffee Oatmeal Stout

5 Rights Brewing, Marysville

Style: Coffee Oatmeal Stout

Stats: 5.8 ABV

Available: On tap Saturday at Fred’s Rivertown Alehouse, The Hop and Hound, The Independent Beer Bar, Toggle’s Bottleshop, Creekside Alehouse and Elliott Bay Pizza and Pub

From the brewery: We took fresh off-the-farm green coffee beans from the Vista Clara Coffee and rested them for a few months in freshly emptied Skip Rock Nocino Walnut Liqueur barrels. The beans were then roasted to the light side of medium to create an absolutely incredible and delicious coffee, which we cold brewed and infused into our Mr. O Oatmeal Stout. The result is a one-of-a-kind birthday treat that you don’t want to miss.