Double buzz alert: Counter Culture Coffee and All About Beer Magazine have collaborated with Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to create “No Middle Ground,” a limited-edition IPA made with cold-brewed coffee.
In celebration of its 35th anniversary year, All About Beer Magazine invited Counter Culture Coffee to Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp #122 in Chico to create a coffee-infused beer. Beer Camp is a two-day, hands-on brewing workshop Sierra Nevada has hosted since 2008 where attendees design, brew and take home a unique beer of their own.
“It was tons of fun to bring together the expertise of the Counter Culture crew with the deep, enthusiastic, experimentally minded attendees at Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp,” said Chris Rice, VP of All About Beer Magazine. “There’s definitely an overlap in intensity of brewmasters and coffee experts—both seem happiest exploring the nuances that make ingredients like coffee and hops complementary. Everybody had a great time making No Middle Ground, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.”
The beer features Counter Culture’s single-origin washed Haru coffee from Ethiopia and an experimental hop known as “291,” giving the beer a bright, fruit-forward flavor profile. To create the beer, large batches of cold-brewed Haru were made on premises at Sierra Nevada’s brewery and added to the beer just before filtration, at the peak of flavor and freshness. While dark-roasted, chocolaty coffees are typically used in darker, more malty beers, No Middle Ground stands alone as a light, refreshing amber-colored IPA showcasing citric, floral coffee and the tropical fruit notes of the IPA, made with Mosaic, Calypso and “291” hops.
Check out this behind-the-scenes video:
- Photography: Counter Culture Coffee
- Video: All About Beer Magazine
