Northern Monk - And Breathe

This beer is a long overdue continuation of our first ever Patrons series with photographer, and dear friend of the Monks, Tom Joy. On Tom’s request we dropped a line to those craft giants, BrewDog, up in North-East Scotland, to work up something big and rich, that continued the theme of showcasing the fantastic single origin coffees of our local roaster, North Star.

The collaboration also meant teaming up with another friend and early mentor, James Kemp, who patiently guided us through our first brew in 2014, and now looks after the pilot kit and all things new and interesting up at BrewDog HQ. The first decisions to make were how big, which coffee, and which fruits would work as an accompaniment. Obviously, we went big! We settled on the plum, tangerine and marzipan notes of El Salvador Chelazos, backed up by plum juice during fermentation to a level designed to accentuate, not dominate. The grist features de-husked Carafa Spezial and chocolate roast malts for colour and flavour, Munich malt and maltodextrin for depth and body, and a blend of crystal malts for sweet caramel and candy notes.