One of our pleasant discoveries at Saturday’s Strong Beer Fest was a new Odell beer called 1st Crack Espresso Stout. The beer was described as a collaboration between the Fort Collins, Colo., brewery and the Valley’s own Cave Creek Coffee Company.
We had made a mental note to find out the back story of the beer sometime, so imagine our surprise when we stopped at Chandler’s Hungry Monk on Monday afternoon and quite coincidentally found none other than brewer Doug Odell standing at the bar.
1st Crack, he explained, was an experimental beer created last month.
“We have a pilot brewing program at the brewery,” he says. “Unlike our regular brewing, we can only make small batches – up to 150 gallons. We do maybe 50 different beers a year.”
Much of the 1st Crack was poured in the brewery’s tasting room, where it was well-received, Odell says. It made its Arizona debut at a beer dinner at C4 last Friday, then was given out at the Strong Beer Fest the next day.
“We used six pounds of their coffee in 150 gallons of beer,” he says. “There’s a nice coffee flavor, but hopefully people found it nicely balanced.”
While the beer is pretty much gone – and Odell has no plans to brew more – Valley beer drinkers still can try it at an Odell beer dinner at Scottsdale’s Atlas Bistro tonight or a beer dinner at Scottsdale’s PrimeBar on Wednesday.
Odell Brewing [website]
Odell Brewing in Arizona [Facebook]
Cave Creek Coffee Company [website]
Cave Creek Coffee Company [Facebook]
