Great Taste of Cottage Grove 2016 – Coffee Stout Results
Gold Medal – Terrapin Wake n Bake
Silver Medal – Perennial Sump
Bronze Medal – Beachwood System of a Stout
Other Participants: The Bruery Share This and Dieu Du Ciel Peche
Mortel
This category had the largest disparity from first to last
place. Wake n Bake had over a third of
the first place votes and was consistently in the top half of most ballots. I have always raved about this beer’s ability
to blast with coffee while keeping some level of balance. The other thing Terrapin does so well is
match up a coffee and roast that pairs perfectly with the base beer. Second place went to Sump with a beer that
was either loved or hated with as many first as last place votes. This beer was a little cooler on the coffee and
lives on the strongest base beer. System
of a Stout was my favorite beer of the day and probably should have not been
included since it has other spices in the beer beyond coffee. Definitely my mistake for including it, but I
was a huge fan and people loved or hated the spice notes. The Bruery Share This actually tied for third
and I don’t have much to say other than I was really impressed with The Bruery’s
offering. Peche Mortel was very
consistently in the bottom of people’s ballots.
This was even a fresh batch, but it just didn’t offer up much in either
terms of base or coffee
My Ballot
1) System of a Stout 2) Wake n Bake 3) Share This 4) Peche Mortel
5) Sump
The Takeaway
This is a category build on personal preferences. Most of these beers really highlight the
coffee while some do it with a balanced base and others want to show off the
coffee. The base beers were consistently
very good with some being more chocolate forward and others more roasty. I really love this style and I think I have
finally figured out what the key is: find a coffee that matches up with your
base beer. Congrats Terrapin, you
knocked it out of the park!
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