Good morning friends! Or is that good evening? I’ve never been a morning drinker myself, preferring to wait until at least mid-afternoon before popping a beer. If I were one of those folks that can do the beer in the morning thing, though, I might consider a glass of Oskar Blues Hotbox Coffee Porter as my wake-up drink. Drinking coffee beers always makes me wonder if it’s morning or night after all.
Anyway, I snapped up a can of Oskar Blues Hotbox Coffee Porter when I saw it ont shelves at my local Total Wine. Hotbox roasters is located in Longmont, Colorado, just as Oskar Blues is. We have an Oskar Blues brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, too, though I don’t think this beer was brewed there.
From the website:
….based on malt flavors of roasted nuts, crème brulee, cocoa, and caramel, extracted from English and German roasted and caramel malts. Hotbox Roasters then crashes the party and infuses potent, cold-extracted coffee from Burundi and Ethiopian beans and deals out flavors and aromas of dark plums, chocolate, and hints of blueberry.
Oskar Blues Hotbox Coffee Porter has an alcohol content of 6.4% by volume with 30 IBUs. The bottom of my can is stamped:
Canned on 03/25/16 @06:37 THE BOOZIEST PART OF WAKING UP
Now for the bad news. I paid $3.49 for my single of this beer, which is high, but hey you always pay more for a single, and I think that’s fair. The beer was running $14.99 a six-pack, which I don’t think is fair. Indeed, I passed on a 4-pack of Oskar Blues Death by Coconut the other day because that beer was $16. Outrageous.
Oskar Blues Hotbox Coffee Porter pours to a jet-black color with a thick creamy tan head and an eye-opening (and olfactory awakening) aroma of black coffee. Taking a sip, the beer is infused with that same black coffee and coffee grind aroma and flavor, subtle chocolate, and a long dry bitter roasty finish.
Friends, this is an excellent roasty coffee beer, it manages to fit in a subtle sweetness as well, and really has me thinking its morning and that I’m sipping coffee instead of beer. Truly delicious, I would give it 4.5 stars based upon it’s own merits of style and hedonistic enjoyment, less a half star for the high price.
Would I buy it again? In all honesty, as much as I enjoyed it, no, not at $14.99 a six-pack. That’s about $5 above average and $4 more than I think a specialty beer like this should command.
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