Commentist Beer Barrel: Coffeebeernerdness Reloaded

It’s another hot one. We’re slated for a high of 102 here in Austin, and as longtime readers of the Beer Barrel will know, when the weather gets hot, I switch to lighter, crisper beers.

Sorry, that’s wrong. That’s the exact opposite of what happens. You’ll have to excuse me. I’ve been drinking.

I’ve said it many times: The concept of weather that’s “too hot for dark/strong/rich beers” is nothing more than a convention of polite, mainstream society, and like many such conventions, it deserves to be destroyed, because it’s ultimately a tool of oppression. It’s a tool the big brewers use to convince their customers that a delicious, handcrafted beer would just be too heavy for this time of year, and let’s face it, if you’ve come to think that something’s too heavy for you to drink in your air-conditioned home or local bar in July, there’s a good chance you’ll still think it’s too heavy for you to drink in your air-conditioned home or local bar in November. The preference for lighter beers doesn’t make any more sense if you’re drinking outdoors, either; I promise you, a big fuckin’ stout will taste much better after some time warming in the sun than your pilsner or kolsch or blonde ale or, god forbid, Coors Light.

There’s another way. There’s a better way. There’s a deep, dark, rich beer you can drink at lawnmower beer prices. That you can drink at nine in the morning and feel good about it. That beer is Santa Fe Imperial Java Stout.

Santa Fe Brewing Company’s reach is limited. You can get their beer in New Mexico, and in the states bordering New Mexico. You can also get it in Nevada, Kansas, Missouri, and Louisiana. This distribution footprint, combined with the year-round availability of Imperial Java Stout, should be taken as evidence of Santa Fe’s own belief that drinking strong, dark, flavorful beers in the sun is good for the palate and even better for the soul. The can’s one of the most charming pieces of label design I’ve ever seen; as you might have spotted in the banner image, it reads “Before Noon” on one side, and “After Noon” on the other. (It also reads “not for use with donuts,” a disclaimer I thought to test but ultimately couldn’t be bothered with, as I’m really just not a big donut fan.)

Enough about the can, though. The liquid therein pours very dark brown with some red highlights; this isn’t a pitch-black stout, but it looks close enough in the glass. Coffee is the overwhelming flavor, as it should be, but I also get a fair bit of milk chocolate, some bell pepper, a touch of breakfast cereal and—my only real criticism—a bit too much burnt coffee bitterness on the finish, probably the consequence of working with less malt than your average imperial coffee stout. Even this apparent flaw, though, comes off as an advantage on a day like today; the bitterness is quenching, like a pilsner’s subtle hop bite or a Berliner weiss’s tart finish.

lady snow is still recovering from her injury and will not participate this week, out of an abundance of caution more than anything. But she’s off the heavy-duty pain meds and only taking Tylenol occasionally, so the Beer Barrel is listing her as probable for next week.

tl;dr: I talked a bit, a couple of weeks ago, about my love for AleSmith Speedway Stout. That’s a great beer, objectively better than this one. But Speedway Stout comes in a $12 25oz bottle, and Santa Fe Imperial Java Stout comes in a $9 72oz six-pack, and the difference between the two isn’t overwhelmingly large. Beer, to me, is already the ultimate affordable luxury, with even very rare bottles seldom costing more than $40, but Santa Fe Imperial Java Stout in particular offers maybe the best luxury-to-price ratio you’ll ever see. And it’s good in hot weather, I promise.

Grade: Four hours of my summer morning out of four.

make it snow is an alot of beer and unlicensed nurse. He drank three cans of Santa Fe Imperial Java Stout while writing this review. Two side notes this week. First of all, make it snow will perform his annual livetweet of a game of Oregon Trail next weekend on July 30th. Follow him @makeitsnowondem. Second, and more importantly, does anyone know any good recipes for cooking with beer? make it snow bought a sixer of Brooklyn American Ale three weeks ago, and man, it’s not good, and there are still four cans left.