Counter Culture Coffee, Burial Beer brew up a collaboration

Burial Beer impressed attendees at its Asheville Beer Week beer dinner with one of the area’s first light coffee beers: Thresher Coffee Saison. Instead of the typical rich and roasty coffee stout, the beer had all the aroma of a fresh cup of Counter Culture coffee but with a crisp body and no roasted malt character.

Now, Burial and Counter Culture are at it again. This Thursday, Aug. 28, the two will host a collaborative coffee and beer tasting 4-7 p.m. at Burial’s taproom, 40 Collier Ave.

“Counter Culture Coffee is very inspirational to us,” says Burial Beer’s head brewer Tim Gormley. “Many of their roasts, varieties and blends have flavor profiles that are atypical [for coffee]. … Since we almost always are approaching beer recipes from a culinary perspective, we see a lot of potential in those unique flavor profiles.”

Thresher will make an encore appearance alongside two other coffee-infused beers: the popular Skillet Donut Stout and Siphon, a Belgian brown ale. Representatives from Counter Culture will be on hand offering tastings of the coffees used in each beer and getting as nerdy as you want with coffee-related information.

The goal is to let drinkers sample and learn about both beer and coffee varietals. Oh, and each beer will have an accompanying sweet treat pairing (while supplies last) as well.

Beers will be available by the single pour or in a flight. The featured beers and coffee information from Burial and Counter Culture follows:

“Skillet Donut Stout: Our infamous breakfast stout brewed with milk sugars and roasted malt with a 50/50 bend of Toscana and Rustico cold pressed and added post fermentation.

Coffee Notes: Rustico — Among the many great things about coffee is that it is capable of a range of delicious flavors: brown sugar, toasted nuts, chocolate, stone fruit … even flowers. Often, blends focus on only one or two of these characteristics, opting for simplicity. Rustico embraces the full spectrum of coffee flavor and is almost kaleidoscopic in its flavor intensity. To create Rustico, we layer intensely delicious organic coffees to create a complex, fully satisfying coffee.

Toscano — Roasted and blended in the caffe dolce or “sweet coffee” tradition of Central Italian espresso, Toscano finds a home in other brewers, as well, for a slightly darker-profile cup. Sweet and mild, with notes of caramel, hazelnut, and dark chocolate.

Thresher Coffee Saison: A light colored Belgian style ale with notes of fruit from the saison yeast but a strong coffee notes and complementary flavors from the Guatemalan coffee, Concepcion Huista.

Coffee Notes: Concepción Huista — One of the most highly anticipated Central American coffees we offer, Concepción Huista delivers yet again. This year, our fourth year working with the cooperative, we continued to focus on buying smaller lots in addition to volume—trying to capture higher quality from particular areas within the cooperative. Look for softer flavors of creamy caramel and sweet plum.

Siphon Belgian Coffee Brown Ale: We took an easy drinking brown ale, inoculated it with Belgian yeast and added Kenyan coffee, Ngunguru, hot brewed post fermentation.

Coffee Notes: Ngunguru — One of three members of the Tekangu cooperative society in Nyeri. This coffee was double fermented in true Kenyan style. Lush, complex notes of raisin and sweet savoriness abound.“