Welcome, my friends, to my second ever beer from the Weldwerks brewery of Greeley, Colorado: Weldwerks Coffee Milkshake New England-Style Milkshake Double IPA. That’s quite the mouthful even before you get a sip of the beer. I’m not sure how I feel yet about “milkshake” IPAs that use lactose (and sometimes vanilla) to add body and creaminess ala a milkshake. Lactose can work well in stouts so I went in to my first one (Evil Twin Every Day, Once a Day, Give Yourself an IPA) with an open mind, but I did not really care for it.

Still, I was willing to give them another try with Weldwerks Coffee Milkshake New England-Style Milkshake Double IPA. There is no information on the beer on the brewery website, although it is listed as one of “100 New Beers for 2018!”. 100 new beers. I can’t keep up. Luckily, the label tells me the beer has an alcohol content of 8.6% by volume and is brewed with lactose, Lemon Drop and Azacca hops, Guatemalan coffee, and vanilla.

Weldwerks Coffee Milkshake New England-Style Milkshake Double IPA pours to a hazy, slightly brown tinged orange color with a moderate amount of creamy foam and a soft coffee and cream nose. Taking a sip, the beer is smooth and very full in body from the lactose, a little creamy from same, with citrusy orange and coffee grinds, hints of vanilla and a marked bitterness in the finish. It’s gently sweet from the lactose, too, which clashed a bit I think with the soft roasty coffee and bitter hops.

Kind of like coffee and orange juice and breakfast cereal in a glass more than a milkshake, but quite tasty indeed. Here again, as with the Evil Twin beer, I find the sweetness at odds with the hop bitterness. That said, this is a beer I would certainly drink again.

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