Local breweries and coffee roasters are teaming up to create coffee-beer hybrids for the Hopwired Festival in Vancouver, and one Richmond brewery hopes to defend their winning title.
Richmond’s Fuggles & Warlock won the first place craft beer award at last year’s Hopwired for their collaboration with Delta’s Notch coffee. They combined their Bean Me Up espresso milk stout with a special batch of concentrated cold brew that Notch aged in a red wine barrel.
“It gave really unique wine flavours to the coffee, which we added to our beer,” said Fuggles and Warlock brewmaster Dan Colyer.
This year, they’re planning to age the beer and coffee in a barrel together. Colyer hinted this year’s barrels once contained a different spirit, but he didn’t want to give too much away.
Also participating this year is Richmond coffee roaster Mogiana Coffee. Named after the Mogiana Valley in Brazil, founder Cristina Dias imports the beans from her family’s fourth-generation farm.
They roast their beans here in Richmond, and sell locally to hotels in the city and grocery stores Choices and Whole Foods. Dias carries a book full of pictures from the family farm, including a school built on its grounds for children in the community, so customers can see who their money benefits.
This year, Mogiana is partnering with Port Coquitlam’s Taylight brewing to create a delicious coffee-beer hybrid for Hopwired. Dias wanted to keep the concoction a surprise, but hinted they’re using a beer that’s not typically infused with coffee.
“These are great for the micro-roasters to kind of get a chance to have direct contact with the consumer and educate,” Dias said. “This is what excites us. We're very passionate about coffee.”
Colyer said dark beers (like his stout) pair easily with coffee. But what he liked about last year’s festival was seeing more creative combinations, like sour beers that played well with the tartness of coffee.
“It’s nice to see the fun creations that people come up with,” he said of the festival.
Richmond’s Canterbury Coffee is also trying their hand at an atypical concoction with Coal Harbour Brewing. They’re using an Ethiopian natural process coffee, that lets the cherry surrounding the coffee bean naturally fall off in the sun instead of being washed off.
That will hopefully imbue the drink with a rich, fruity flavour said brand manager Leah Bowman.
“[Hopwired] sounds really fun. Even among food and drink events, which are always fun,” she said.
The festival happens Feb. 23 in Vancouver
