While I really enjoyed Dos Cocoas Chocolate Porter, the 4th installment of the Terrapin Brewing Side Project series, I was distracted by thoughts of what the brew would taste like with higher ABV and a bitter coffee injection. As I drank Dos Cocoas, I couldn’t get Terrapin’s Wake-n-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout out of my mind. I fully realize that in some circles mixing beer is frowned upon, but my intense curiosity compelled me to swallow the snobbish pride and entertain my inner mad scientist.

To get little background action going, here’s a flavor profile for Dos Cocoas. As for Wake-n-Bake, a coffee oatmeal stout that has been infused with Jittery Joe’s Wake-n-Bake coffee blend, which is composed of beans from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Zimbabwe — After being poured into a snifter, aromas of boozy milk chocolate and dark roasted coffee beans radiate from the murky brown body. Flavors are concurrent to the smells; really nice, like perfectly made cup of expensive coffee with a splash of liquor added. The 8.1% ABV is mildly detectable by a burst of heat inside your nose, while a deliciously dry and smoky tone lingers on the palate.

This experiment begins with two imperial pint glasses, a 22 ounce bomber of Dos Cocoas, and a 12 ounce bottle of Wake-n-Bake. I began by splitting the Dos Cocoas between the two glasses and then topped that off with the Wake-n-Bake. Gazing at this pint of cocoa coffee oatmeal imperial porter/stout, I’ve never felt so much like Dr. Frankenstein.

The splendid brew cocktail is muddy black, with Wake-n-Bake’s active carbonation bubbling through the denser Dos Cocoas like chocolate java tar pits. It smells, dominantly, of brownies with a little alcohol and espresso. Between the porter’s dense, barely carbonated body and the slickness from the stout’s oatmeal factor, mouthfeel comes off as pudding thick, with a slight tingle from the bitterness. The concoction’s taste is everything I was hoping it would be, like a chunk of baker’s chocolate and a cup of strong coffee.

Committing beer crime never tasted so good.

This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2009.