The Death of Coffee: Friday Beer Selection

Today's beer selection is an American take on a British standby. If you've ever had a British brown ale - smooth, low carbonation, malty-sweet - you know what a standard it is. But as we've done with everything in our Great American Quest for the Extreme, Rogue Ales Brewery presents us with

Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

As an avid coffee-drinker as well, this beer contains the best of both worlds of beer and coffee: hazelnut and...beer.

What I like about Rogue, besides for the fact that they brew terrific beer, is that they actually list their ingredients right on the bottle right down to the "Free Range Coastal Water."It gives homebrewers a chance to try to copy truly incredible beers. On top of that, Rogue has started selling their specialized yeast strain, Pac Man. This is the strain of yeast they use in most, if not all, of their beers and they have cultivated it and made it available for home brewers. I am thrilled.

I digress. The beer:

This is a really creamy looking beer, with a nice light tan lace. It is a lovely shade of dark mahogany with reddish hues when held up to light.

There is a huge malty assault on the nose, with a very prominent hazelnut aroma. Underneath it all is a well-balanced toasted and roasted malt with a hint of a deep fruit (think date or prune).

We have another winner here. This beer has a balanced mix of toasted and roasted malts up front with a big backbone of sweetness; just like a solid British brown ale should have. And along that same line is a medium body with low, smooth carbonation that roils and boils as it settles. There is just a quick burst of spicy hops for balance. Along the way there are hints of chocolate and charred wood with that same hint of prune fruitiness found in the nose. But what sets it apart from just any other solid British brown is this lovely, sweet, mild nuttiness from the hazelnut extract. There is no mistaking its presence, but it does so much to the overall character of the beer.

This would be an amazing dessert beer. I imagine what this tastes like along a heavy square of tiramisu or a nice thick chocolate cake; the same stuff you'd drink coffee with. But now that you have a hazelnut beer, who needs coffee?