Earlier this year Gage Roads launched its ‘You Vote We Brew’ competition, asking beer lovers to vote on what the brewer’s next limited release would be.
Following on from the vote Gage Roads teamed up with Twin Peaks Coffee Roasters to launch the winning beer – Dawn Patrol Breakfast Stout. The beer is described as “bold, complex and charged with rich malt flavour” and delivers coffee, chocolate and oats at six per cent ABV.
Gage Head Brewer Ross Brown said: “Teaming up with the crew at Twin Peaks was an awesome experience. The guys are as passionate about their coffee as we are about our beer.
“The collaborative process of selecting the coffee blend, assessing the flavour profile of different coffee brewing methods and then scaling up to brew 200kg of Twin Peaks coffee at the brewery was amazing.”
He added: “We wanted a robust flavour. I love the amazing coffee aroma that this beer hits off with. I think the malt we included also has some of those really nice roasted coffee, mocha and chocolate type of characters as well.
“It’s amazing what you can get out of the raw ingredients. I think there’s a great bitter-sweet finish to it as well, and a great velvety mouthfeel from the huge amount of oats we put into it.”
Twin Peaks owner Tom Greene has two words to describe the collaboration.
“Bloody awesome.”
He went on to say: “It was such a good collaborative process. We were coming at it from a very coffee angle. Day in and day out, we just taste coffee. Different coffees, different flavours, different roast profiles, but to be able to then shift a bit to collaborate with a brewer to produce a different flavour profile and think about how that coffee is going to marry with the oats, or the cocoa nibs as well, was really interesting and fun. It was just a great process.
“For this beer we needed a coffee that provided a rich backbone, good structure, low acid and loads of chocolate. Immediately we went to the Brazil Sertao (coffee) that we use day in, day out. What it adds to our core range, our Profiler and Deli blends, is similar to what it brings to this beer.”
Released nationally, Dawn Patrol Breakfast Stout is available on tap and in 500ml cans.