Beer of the Week: Gambino

From the Beer Writer: The imperial stout is a lovely beer style. Rich with roasty notes imparted by deep-kilned specialty malts, these high-gravity ales taste a lot like coffee. That similarity has led modern-era brewers to incorporate java to their imperial-stout recipes, bringing added nuance to the roast character along with a touch of acidity and, in some cases, notes of lemon, red berries, anise or chocolate. While delicious, all too often those flavors are overshadowed by over-the-top alcohol. A standard imperial stout comes in around nine or ten percent ABV (alcohol-by-volume), but over the last decade, the advent of brutish pastry stouts coming in between 12 and 18 percent–along with their impressive sales figures–have inspired brewers to boost the strength of their big-boy stouts, coffee or otherwise. So it’s refreshing to see local operation Bay City Brewing go the other way with its annual coffee stout, Gambino. Rather than endeavor to get the Point Loma company’s clientele as bombed as they are caffeinated, Head Brewer Austin Pinder opted to take the ABV down a few notches to let the locally procured coffee within shine through. That sort of restraint is admirable and almost never seen. In addition to providing a more enjoyable flavor experience, it also omits unenjoyable fusile-alcohol qualities, provides a more balanced texture and, though it’s still not a session beer by any stretch, renders this a stout that–if consumed at a reasonable, responsible pace–one can enjoy two of. Cheers to that!

From the Brewer: “For this year’s version of Gambino, our imperial coffee stout, we were excited to implement a few tweaks to refresh the beer for 2023. The first thing we did was lower the ABV (alcohol-by-volume) down to 8.5% from 10.5%. Previously, the goal was for the beer to live in the double-digit ABV range, which was a lot of fun, but we realized at 8.5% that Gambino was every bit as tasty as before and made an even better canvas to let the coffee flavors shine through. On the coffee side, the thing I was most excited about was to use coffee beans from Pannikin Coffee in Leucadia. Pannikin has been my hometown coffee spot for over a decade, and my favorite landing spot after a chilly early-morning surf. Aging Gambino on their medium-roasted Guatemalan and Colombian beans created the perfect blend of chocolate, roast, caramel and dark-fruit flavors, adding another beautiful layer to the beer. I am stoked about this collaboration and very excited to share this new version of Gambino with our fans!”—Austin Pinder, Head Brewer, Bay City Brewing