Coffee/chocolate beers that aren't dark?

Founders Sumatra Mountain Brown - a brown ale.
Bent Paddle Cold Press (although its pretty close to a porter, to be honest)

 

Are you close to Chicago so that you could find Odd Side Ale's Bean Flicker Blonde Ale?
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22564/97432/

 

Not sure if Sixpoint distributes to your area, but if they do this is what you are after

 

Goose Island Fulton Street Blend. Excellent blonde ale with amazing coffee flavors. Should be readily available.

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/33412/189908/
Huss has a terrific version and its golden in color, so if you find yourself in AZ give it a shot.

 

One of my favorite uses of coffee in a beer was by a local brewery, Snowbank, in their Coffee Pale Ale. Stone Mocha IPA was also tasty.

 

Watch out for the Stone mocha IPA which comes out in two months. Its excellent! Also right now Oskar Blues has a coffee IPA I haven't tried yet.

 

It was a one-off beer, but 2.5 years ago Anthem brewed a Coffee Saison that was fantastic and was a Top 3 beer from that year's beer festival. I would gladly throw in a couple hundred dollars if they decided to bring it back as a spring seasonal.

 

Noble Ale Works Naughty Sauce is the ultimate golden milk stout with coffee.

 

Oddside Bean Flicker, Goose Island Futon St Blend, Founders Pale Joe, and Elk Blonde Express are some that I've really enjoyed. I think Pale Joe is seasonal and I doubt Elk distributes too far away at this point, so that may complicate getting them. I love the style though.

 

This is completely unhelpful but Carton Regular Coffee. It is only available in New Jersey and New York when it is released in January.
The Sixpoint CREAM is a great suggestion.

 

It sounds like you really like the coffee flavor in a coffee beer. Sometimes, in a coffee stout the coffee can get lost or compete with the other present "roasty" flavors.

The most coffee forward beer I've had (and it is available in parts of IL) is Surly Coffee Bender. It is dark in color, but the base brown ale is pretty mild. Someone else mentioned Sumatra Mountain Brown, which is really good, but it is an Imperial Brown and a much bigger beer. Coffee Bender is nearly all coffee and it is pretty sessionable.

 

Ballast Point Calm Before the Storm and Sixpoint C.R.E.A.M. are coffee blond ales. Saranac Cold Brew is a Vienna lager with coffee.

 

I don't know if they still make it but Dogfishead's Theobroma.

 

Exit 15 by Flying Fish - A coffee IPA that really surprised me. Definitely try it.

 

Lots of coffee IPAs have been mentioned. Just adding Fort George Java the Hop.

 

Off Color Hyper Predator is a farmhouse ale with coffee. Should be easy to get since you're in Illinois

 

I second Founders Pale Joe, Ballast Point Calm bfore the storm, also Snake Juice by Shorts is well done, its a coffee ipa, although their distro is very limited but slowly broadening.

 

Platform Brewing (Cleveland) - High Brow Barista. It's a Rye beer with coffee, excellent!