Split Shift
Atypical Brewery & Barrelworks

my first ever beer from these guys, crowler picked up at the source by my in laws when they traveled through, wish i could have been there this place seems awesome. this is a light, well made, and very drinkable little brown ale done with locally roasted coffee, a wonderful specimen for a lot of reasons. first, the base brown is on the lighter side for the style, reddish in the light, but definitely without a ton of roasted barley on the low end, so the coffee really has a lot of room to flavor this thing in that space, not competing with bitter roasted character from the grain, and i think the coffee selected works perfectly here, not too dark itself, with dry cocoa character, hints of raisin and even dried berry, almond, and brown sugar and rum to me, really appealing with the more chocolate malt base, seems simple, but the flavor is very nuanced. second, its obvious that the coffee quality is very high, the roast is expertly executed, and the integration into the beer is flawless, this is a brilliant coming together of the two, and that is increasingly apparent as this warms up some and continues to open up. finally, i think this has a little something to the ferment, not quite english, but a little doughy and european, it makes this more complex and nuanced, and it seems to help this stand out as distinct even more than it would without this element, its also very drying, which lends impressive drinkability to this. i could easily have had ten of these, and hope to someday get the chance to pound them at the brewery. what a great beer, killer use of a nice coffee, and a fantastic introduction to what these guys are all about. not to be missed, one of the best coffee beers ive had all year!