I've mentioned my eldest daughter before. She's the one who likes going into churches, paying no respect to my atheism. Now this weekend, she has started to drink coffee. Coffee is the only foodstuff I don't like, but wish I did. Until five years ago I couldn't stand cheese, but now I love the stuff - the stronger the better - but I cannot get past that coffee barrier.
I'm partial though to the taste of coffee in beer. I have had beers which are brewed with coffee beans and liked them, so I would strugle with the correlation except there are coffee beers which are too much for me.
One is fresh Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. This is just too rich for my palate. I've drank the beer slightly beyond it's best before date and it's really lovely; the coffee flavours and the hops working in perfect harmony, but I guess the coffee lost its intensity as the beer aged. The other one I've struggled with is bottled Meantime Coffee. This was just 100% coffee. No beer flavours at all iin the bottle I had.
Last week though I had the cask version at the Wetherspoons festival. The coffee is there of course, but it's much more mellow, and works nicely. I'm convinced this is a different recipe even if it does use the same Fairtrade Rwandan coffee beans. They must be at a lower ratio.
Other beers brewed with coffee I've liked, off the top of my head, are Dark Star Espresso Stout, Darwin Java Jolt and Founders Breakfast Stout
I'm interested in recommendations for really heavy coffee flavoured coffee beers that I might try to see if I can get over my issues. I may even start liking coffee itself one day.
