Coffee beers: A fusion of my two favorite drugs

Don't judge me, but I'll spend most days suspended between two of my favorite mood-altering chemicals: alcohol and caffeine. It's not simply the pharmacological effects I enjoy, it’s the flavors of the beverages that these chemicals are dissolved in. Hence my recent late night realization that our tasting journey has left out an absolutely essential beer style: Coffee stouts and porters! Coffee and dark beer are really a match made in spastic, drunken heaven. Most darker beers feature roasted flavors that resemble coffee, and their thicker bodies suspend coffees’ flavorful oils much better than lighter beer styles. With winter's long, dark descent looming ahead, I'm kicking off an extend period of darker beer tastings with Coffee Stouts (and porters, for that matter.) We'll start by tasting some coffee stouts from Maine, and move on to coffee stouts from other parts of the world.