by Tom Major
Rising Tide Brewing, for example, uses a special blend from Tandem Coffee Roasters in its Waypoint Coffee Porter. Tandem’s Will Pratt worked with Rising Tide’s Nathan Sanborn to create the recipe, adding Ethiopian and Guatemalan beans at both the mashing and fermentation stages.
“Nathan has always been very intrigued by Will’s emphasis on coffee ‘as a fruit’ and has always tried to highlight some of the bright, fruity notes of Tandem’s coffee in our Waypoint porter,” said Heather Sanborn, co-founder of Rising Tide.
“If you are looking for just a ‘coffee’ flavor, then any of our washed coffees from Central or South America would work perfectly,” Pratt told me, noting that they used Colombian beans for Bunker Brewing’s We Are Happy to Serve the Servants imperial stout. “If you are looking for something a little more noticeable, that could lend a little more spice and fruit to the beer, then you might want to use a coffee from Ethiopia or Kenya.”