Beer of the Week: The Breakfast Klub

From the Beer Writer: During his six years working at the local brick-and-mortar HQ for international beer-making concern, Mikkeller, brewer Daniel Cady had no shortage of opportunities to flex his creative muscle, and he did so with great regularity and enthusiasm. No style was off limits, from staid to hybrid, ultra-modern to Old World beers time forgot. Experimentation was encouraged and ever-present at that since-shuttered Miramar concern. Cady’s fearlessness and creative prolificity were key reasons TapRoom Beer Co. owner Kevin Conover was excited to bring him on to expand the variety of that North Park brewpub’s beer program in 2022. And that’s just what Cady and his team have done, as exemplified by this week’s featured offering, The Breakfast Klub, More than a single beer, The Breakfast Klub is a just-launched series of stouts infused with coffee operations. For each roaster, a single stout is infused with four of their proprietary java blends, then packaged in four-packs containing one can each of the resultant beers. It’s a logistically ambitious project similar to the approach of the in-house brewery at Miramar yeast purveyor, White Labs, where a single batch of wort is split into separate vessels and fermented using different yeast strains to show the impact each has on a beer’s aroma and flavor. The Breakfast Klub project does the same thing but with coffee. For the maiden run of TapRoom’s new project, Cady and company teamed with a Swedish coffee roaster, and were particularly enamored with a version infused with a blend of espresso. So was I. Decadent fudgy flavors conceal a brawny 11.7% ABV (alcohol-by-volume) while a measured acidity that presents as fresh blueberries adds liveliness on the palate. It’s a delectable first sip of a series with serious promise.

From the Brewer: “When my brewer, Justin Pribbenow (previously of Mikkeller and Duck Foot Brewing) and I set off to build a compelling specialty-beer program, intrigue and expression rang paramount. We needed to be us but in a way that was broadly communicative. Looming on the horizon of our potential was a multi-faceted execution of sorts, something that would present a varying experience to the consumer. We opted to launch a project long in the works called ‘The Breakfast Klub’ as our preeminent entry—a collection of rotating coffee-focused beers that would showcase a specific coffee roaster in their own unique ways. Volume 1 is a mixed four-pack experience that brings Sweden-based Koppi Coffee Roasters to San Diego with a collection of four individually packaged imperial coffee stouts: Peruvian Flor de Valle Organic, Rwandan Gitesi, Costa Rican La Lia ‘Black Honey Processed Geisha, and Red Clay Espresso Blend. On display is a broad range of coffee-derived influence on a singular base beer, with enough shared character that nuance and complexity become a foreground. Red Clay is our favorite. An engulfing hazelnut and rich-brownie batter character leaps from the glass, while edges of deep roast add angles to an otherwise succulent quaff. Live a little, and remember: ‘Screws fall out all the time. The world’s an imperfect place.'”—Daniel Cady, Head Brewer, TapRoom Beer Co.