Taps Debuts Mocha Stout
How does a Mocha Stout sound just in time for Valentine’s? TAPS Fish House & Brewery’s latest creation from award-winning Brewmaster Victor Novak and the Brew Crew is a slightly sweet stout brewed with oats, three different kinds of chocolate and finished with a custom blend of coffee from Costa Mesa’s highly regarded Portola Coffee Lab. Novak describes the beer as “medium-bodied, roasty and chocolatey, finishing very smooth” (6.8% abv). Twenty-six kegs of Mocha Stout were brewed and released late last week. The chocolate used to create the unique beer was added at three different stages of the brewing process. First, a: 100% cacao cocoa powder in the Mash Tun,; then TCHO Drinking Chocolate in the Brew Kettle, and finally TCHO Guyana cocoa nibs added to the fermenter after primary fermentation. The coffee added to the brew is a 64% Brazil, 36% Nicaragua custom coffee blend, roasted by proprietor Jeff Duggan of Portola Coffee Lab. Duggan’s goal was to complement the chocolate, milky sweetness of the stout beer.
Costa Mesa-based Portola Coffee Lab is a cutting edge coffeehouse and in-house roasterie that has garnered rave reviews from coffee aficionados. This is TAPS fourth collaboration with Portola Coffee. Novak and Duggan came together to brew TAPS’ Neo-Colonial Stout, Portola Porter last spring and Imperial Balinese Stout created expressly for The Bruery’s third anniversary last year. TAPS has garnered over 50 awards at the international, national, state, and regional levels for their outstanding European-style beers over the last decade. For more information, log onto www.tapsfishhouse.com.
Posted by Aaron
