Ardi
The O.T. Brewing Company

 

 

355ml can - made with coffee from Calgary's Monogram Coffee, who appear to be a craft purveyor of the stuff.

This beer pours a clear, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, chunky, and mildly bubbly tan head, which leaves some waves crashing on a rocky shoreline profile lace around the glass as it rather slowly abates.

It smells of rich artisanal coffee beans, bready and doughy cereal malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, a bit of earthy nuttiness, and very faint leafy, floral, and herbal green hops. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, cafe-au-lait, dark chocolate, oily bar-top nuts, and more well-understated earthy, musty, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite tame in its innocuous-seeming frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, as the java character is not really all that bitter, which helps out a lot at this point in the game. It finishes off-dry, the liquid Coffee Crisp essence pervading.

Overall - well, they done brought the cuppa Joe with this offering, and in a nicely balanced manner. As noted about a bajillion times before, I can't stand the stuff, but in a capably-crafted beer, it just kinda works for me. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you're a big fan of both types of 'brew'.

 

Best coffee blonde I have had for sure. Made with Ardi coffee, obviously, roasted by monogram, which is my favorite local coffee shop. Smooth and super coffee forward but not estringent like some other coffee blondes, and has a nice malt backbone that compliments the coffee profile.