Cooter Brown and I are great friends. We hang out a lot; he puts up with my corny jokes, and I turn a blind eye to his indecisive nature. What’s that? You say you’ve suffered through my sense of humor in reading through some of my beer reviews here on Bruguru.com, but you don’t know anything about Cooter? Well, let me just tell you a bit about Cooter as Jekyll tells it:
Cooter Brown was a family man who lived on the mason-dixon (SIC) line during the civil war. He decided to stay inebriated for the entire war so that he would not need to pick a side. We salute his peaceful manner by naming our brew in his honor.
Hey, I’m all for inebriation, especially if it’s accomplished with a beer as tasty as Jekyll Cooter Brown Ale. Cooter Brown is a really wonderful American brown ale and it may well be my favorite Jekyll beer. But hey, Cooter was known to enjoy a bit of coffee in the mornings, and so I give you: Jekyll Coffee Cooter Brown, a beer they describe as an American Brown Ale with coffee added. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee to be precise.
I first tried Coffee Cooter Brown on tap at Taco Mac. I’ve not seen it in six-packs as a unique selection, though I did get a few bottles in the Dark Mix Six that included two bottle of Coffee Cooter, two of Major Horton’s Export Stout, and two bottles of Slow n’ Low Country Smoked Porter.
From the label:
Who says you can’t have beer for breakfast? We took our brown ale, Cooter Brown, and added LOCALLY roasted Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. The complex notes of the coffee percolates (sic) with the smooth chocolate notes of Cooter Brown.
Jekyll Coffee Cooter Brown has an alcohol content of 6% by volume with 46 IBUs. I paid $6 for a 20-ounce mug at Taco Mac and the six-pack sampler is a very reasonable $9.99.
Jekyll Coffee Cooter Brown pours to a dark brownish-black color with a medium sized head of creamy foam and a huge coffee grind aroma with a hint of butter. Taking a sip, the beer has luscious notes of chocolate and sweet cookie malt underneath quickly subsumed by harsh roasty coffee notes. The beer is dark and roasty and finishes with a harsh roasty acidic coffee grind note. The coffee is really the star here and takes over and dominates a normally lovely brown ale but hey, I love coffee, and this beer presents it along with the best of them.
Most of the coffee brews I’ve come across are usually stouts or porters. The juxtaposition of roasty coffee against a lighter bodied brown ale is interesting indeed, and a beer you should not pass by.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft