Mt. Carmel Brewing Company - Coffee Brown

Mt. Carmel's Coffee Brown is a collaboration with Cincinnati's Deeper Roots Coffee, a local roaster whose coffee is infused into this brown ale – to great effect, we might add. Pouring an attractive reddish-brown mahogany color, it offers up a bold aroma profile centered on big roasted coffee notes, with additional touches of dark chocolate and scorched toast. The aroma predicts the flavor well; there are bold impressions of iced coffee and toasted bread, while a thread of maple joins a touch of roasted nuts as secondary notes. A good dash of moderate hop bitterness joins the roasty coffee character to keep this brew on the dry side. Being a coffee brown ale, as opposed to the more commonly seen coffee stouts and porters, it's less aggressively roasty, which lets the coffee flavor come through nicely without the more acrid notes that usually come with the more heavily roasted barley that we see with darker styles. It's a take on coffee beer that we quite liked. For food pairings, barbecued meats with savory rubs or rich sauces would make good match-ups, but our favorite pairing with coffee beers is tiramisu. The coffee notes in both the beer and the dessert match well, while the beer's bitter character will cut through the dessert's sweetness nicely. Cheers!

Situated at the western edge of Appalachian Ohio is Mt. Carmel, a Cincinnati neighborhood home to Mt. Carmel Brewing Company. The business was founded by Cincinnati natives Mike & Kathleen Dewey, originally using a tiny two-vessel brewing system down in the storm cellar of their farmhouse home which was built in 1924. The planning for the business began in 2004. Mike was a successful homebrewer, and he and Kathleen recognized that Cincinnati was a bit behind the curve of the craft brewing renaissance. Despite the fact that up until that time no local microbrewery had been very successful, Kathleen ultimately believed in her husband's brewing skill and passion, and convinced him to go pro.

Just one year later, in 2005, the business was underway and the first drops of Mt. Carmel beer were flowing into the local Cincinnati market. Then, in the midst of trying to build the business, their children came, providing the pair with the dual challenge of managing a fledgling business and a growing family. Fast forward to the present day, and their hard work has paid off handsomely. They've long since grown out of their cellar brewery to an 80 barrel brewhouse, and their beers see distribution throughout Ohio and Kentucky. Currently, Mt. Carmel offers five year-round beers, four seasonals, and about a half-dozen limited release beers, including the two tasty brews they've brewed for us this month. For more info about the brewery and their Public House Tap Room, call 513-240-2739 or visit them at mtcarmelbrewingcompany.com.