Das Morganlatte
10 Barrel Brewing Co.

a nice dark lager jazzed up with local cold brew coffee and some vanilla, too much of the latter, but a flavorful beer that hits as a morning drink, a winter drink, and carries some caffeine too, well executed if a little whack on the proportions. its amber to chestnut in color, has a creamy near inch of off white head, decent clarity, and a luxurious richness about it. the nose is vanilla forward, subtle hazelnut and cocoa there, the coffee is low acid, medium roast, and cozy to me, but the vanilla makes it sweet, especially with some grain sweetness in play too, not immediately obvious to me as a lager, like the yeast part is subtle and the added elements are strong enough to run over some nuance in the base beer, but its also robust enough on its own to handle them at this level. the flavor is lovely, coffee first, definite nuttiness to it, not really bitter at all, which usually i like in beers like this, but i miss it here with how sweet this ends up being, some bitterness would be useful in this. the base lager is good, mellow but well crafted as is often the case with these guys out of their boise location, always good beer at the core of everything. the vanilla is sugary and maybe there is some lactose in this too, seems like it, fine for body and silkiness, but over the top for pint level drinkability, and it comes at the expense of the coffee, which is what sold me this one. that said, its tasty, just a little desserty. nice for the holidays, a good winter brew, could be refined and dried out to be something special in future batches...