While it’s still generally frowned up to put alcohol in your morning coffee, putting coffee in your alcohol is a relatively common theme for brewers—and meadmakers. Brother’s Drake meadery is releasing a new line of coffee meads this Sunday, August 23 featuring beans from three local Ohio roasters.
The 2015 batch of coffee meads are made using roasts from One Line Coffee here in Columbus, Rising Star Coffee Roasters in Cleveland and Boston Stoker Coffee in Dayton. All three come in around 13% abv.
Last year, Brothers Drake released just one coffee mead using a local roast from Cafe Brioso which was quite popular in the Columbus area. The decision to make three different varieties this time around is a result of their recent expansion to the Cleveland and Dayton markets, according to bar manager Amy Mesh. Each bottle will be available for purchase in its respective market after the release, although specifics on where and how much are unavailable.
One Line Coffee is a favorite hang out for many of the Brothers Drake team so they decided to collaborate using their Columbua La Arenosa coffee blend, yielding acidic flavors of apple and cranberry softened with subtle chocolate notes. The Kenya Jungle AA blend from Boston Stoke has more tea-like aromas with notes of chocolate, tobacco and berries to follow and Columbia el Maridano from Rising Star features citrus forward flavors such as orange and, of course, chocolate. All three varieties can be tasted in a flight on Sunday.
Limited edition bottles and flights will be sold at Brothers Drake starting at 11am on Sunday. A reserve selection of Cafe Brioso coffee mead will also be available at the leader on Sunday. As with many of their special releases, quantities are limited. To celebrate the release, Lucas of Playing to Vapors will perform at 4pm and Field Sleeper, a barista at One Line Coffee, at 5:30pm.
Brothers Drake Meadery is located at 26 E 5th Ave and will be open 11am-10pm on Sunday, August 23.