Beer Spotlight!

Lost Barrel Bourbon Barrel Coffee Stout

$18.99 for the 16oz four-pack can
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Coffee Stout

Middleburg, VA sits up in the crosshairs between Winchester and Washington (going west to east) and Warrenton and Purcellville (going south to north). For reasons best known to polo fiends and fox hunters, it is the home of the National Sporting Library & Museum. It is also the home of Lost Barrel Brewing.

Lost Barrel ages their Bourbon Barrel Coffee Stout in barrels from KO Distilling in Manassas. Now, that’s not nuthin’. However, the key to the beer’s flavor is the type of coffee that Lost Barrel uses — cold-brewed coffee. For the (very few) non-coffee people out there, rather than extracting the oils, lipids, melanoidins, and whatnot from coffee through boiling hot water, cold brewers let their grounds steep in water that is room temperature or even cold. It takes longer, but this process produces a less harsh coffee and can bring out more chocolate notes (depending on the bean and the roast).

We’re pretty sure that it’s the cold-brewed coffee makes this barrel-aged coffee stout soooooo smooth! Seriously. Rather than overpowering the beer, the coffee flavor was just one subtle part of a whole package of goodness. Dry and creamy, great on the nose, this barrel-aged stout is a sublime slow sipping experience.

It’s not like that fact should be a surprise. Lost Barrel’s Assistant Brewer’s favorite drink is hard seltzer, while their taproom manager is partial to their Cucumber Lemon Hefeweizen. However, both their brewer and brewmaster fave rave over bourbon barrel stouts, so we were pretty sure we were in good hands. Turns out we were right.