Chefs and bartenders across the nation are blending beer into beermosas and Bloody Marys, infusing it into their benedicts and gravies, and pairing it alongside breakfast items at multi-course brunches. The lineup of 2014 Great American Beer Festival breakfasts and brunches was proof alone that it is undoubtedly the year of the beer brunch.
In stride with beer’s new spot at the breakfast table, my Beer for Breakfast column has rounded up the best oatmeal stouts to pair with biscuits & gravy, delved into the wide variety of benedicts for Berliner Weisse pairings, and tabulated the best table beers for Easter brunch. Inspired by a summer backpacking trip, the column also covered the best canned beers to crack open at the campsite.
In this post-GABF edition of Beer for Breakfast, I present to you the breakfast beers that will eliminate your hangover, jumpstart your day with caffeine, and fill you up all at once. Obviously, I’m talking about coffee beers. Brewed with cold-press and aged on roasted beans, these robust, hearty, and nuanced beers are meals in themselves, not to mention they make for some interesting collaborations between brewers and their local coffee roasters.
Twisted Pine Brewing Co. Big Shot Espresso Stout
“It’s a good Sunday starter . . . or Saturday as the occasion warrants,” says Twisted Pine Sales and Marketing Coordinator Justin Tilotta of the Boulder, Colorado, company’s most award-winning beer, the Big Shot Espresso Stout. “I haven’t met anyone who likes coffee who doesn’t like this beer.” Made with locally roasted organic Peruvian coffee from Unseen Bean (pictured at top), Big Shot most recently won the 2014 Gold World Beer Cup in the Coffee Beer Category.
Oakshire Brewing Overcast Espresso Stout
Brewed and named for the gray skies in western Oregon, Oakshire’s espresso stout is a dark, silky oatmeal stout made with locally roasted, cold-brewed Wandering Goat Coffee.
Perennial Artisan Ales Barrel-Aged Sump Coffee Stout
Perennial’s coffee stout is aged for twelve months in Rittenhouse Rye whiskey barrels and blended with Saint Louis-brewed Sump coffee. This beer took home a silver medal for Coffee Beer from the 2013 Great American Beer Festival.
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing Mocha Machine Imperial Coffee Chocolate Porter
Long Beach, California’s Beachwood BBQ & Brewing released the much anticipated Mocha Machine Imperial Coffee Chocolate Porter in July, just a few months after it won a 2014 Bronze World Beer Cup in the Coffee Beer category. This popular breakfast beer is infused with Costa Mesa California’s Portola Coffee Lab's coffee and aged on cacao nibs from Ecuador.
Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist
For a beer of its brawn, Epic Brewing’s barrel-aged espresso stout is deceivingly drinkable and light in body. Added to the Baptist are chocolate and coffee beans from local Denver companies such as Ritual Chocolate and Novo Coffee, and no two batches are identical.