Feel invited for the first sip of ART Coffee Milk Dark Lager!

Along with Czarny Deszcz, we made a decision to brew beer with the addition of coffee. Together we picked the style of beer and discussed the technology of production. The choice fell on the dark bottom-fermented beer, as such, which would be more appropriate to the added benefits of coffee. Along with Czarny Deszcz we had tasted different varieties of coffee, but we went for a homogenous Peru coffee – Elmer Pena (species: Arabica; botanical varieties of the used beans: Pache, Caturra and Catimor), wetly processed, brightly roasted for espresso. The aroma hints of marzipan in chocolate. It tastes of red fruit acidity. It has a pleasant and long aftertaste of dried fruit in chocolate.

ART+3 COFFEE MILK DARK LAGER was brewed with the addition of dark barley and wheat malts, added at the end of mashing, so as to give a dark colour and a delicate aroma of coffee and chocolate, ideally matching the aromatic profile of the selected coffee. While cooking with hops we added lactose – milk sugar that is not fermented by the brewing yeast, and due to this factor remains in beer, building increased fullness.

The excellent coffee alone is not enough, equally important is the way it is brewed. We added coffee at 2 stages – freshly ground immediately after boiling with hops, at the stage of separating the hot sediments (Whirlpool), where the temperature of the wort is already slightly lower, as the perfect coffee is brewed in approx. 92⁰C.

After fermentation and clarifying the beer, during ageing at a low temperature, we added the second portion of the freshly ground and sieved coffee, using the “cold brew” method – wherein brewed liquid is extracted at low temperature. The purpose of sieving was to separate the “dust” of coffee of different sizes which would adversely affect the extraction process.

The result of this cooperation is unusual beer. Dark in colour, with beautiful light tan foam. Shortly after transferring to the glass, it immediately becomes clear what has been added while brewing. The coffee aroma is combined with the smell of dark fruit. The taste still hints of coffee, with the underlying milky malt taste, resulting from the use of lactose. And all this in a gentle form of dark lager, perfectly matching the warm summer evenings.