Session Pirate Coffee
Fat Pig Brewing Company

this was an exciting find for me, a black ipa with coffee, but down in the highly sessionable abv range, a really cool idea for a beer, especially there, and especially this time of year, it makes perfect sense, and they have done a fantastic job with the execution here. its straight black in the glass, moderate shine and a lot of life evident as an inch of off white head collects at the top. it smells like good cold brewed coffee, espresso-esque, blended in after fermentation i would think, as it seems very fresh to me, low acid, and highly dosed in here, just smelling it picks me up. the hops are fresh too, piney and northwestern, not overly bitter, there appears to be plenty of that anyway with the coffee and the dark barley. i like how robust the grain is here, roasty and with coffee notes of its own, almost ashy for a moment, earthy and deep, nice with the coffee. no sweet balancing malty middle at all and i dont miss it, it would make this less sessionable to me, its nicely dry. the hops are fresh and green and vegetal here, some pine notes, sappy, woodsy, excellent with the coffee here, which picks up about mid palate and carries long through the smooth finish. nice carbonation, lighter medium body, extremely drinkable even with some dark grain and hops and coffee all lingering past the swallow. the low alcohol is awesome, and the depth of flavor is impressive. a great glass of beer!