Beer: Coffee is for Closers
Brewery: Fullsteam (Durham, NC)
Style: Porter – American
6% ABV / 21 IBU

One sign that 2020 was going off the rails: In March of that year, I stopped drinking American and English porters and made the switch to the considerably more boozy Imperial and Baltic porter styles. This was not a conscious decision, but it’s much easier to get shitfaced with a 9% ABV pint. Still, I’d argue that if you really want to experience the delicate chemistry of the porter, you need to reach for the elemental English porter or its slightly younger American cousin. Both styles have been brewed consistently since the early 1700s and are justifiable classics.

Fullsteam’s Glengarry Glen Ross tribute Coffee is for Closers calls itself “an iced coffee porter. This is due to the addition of locally-roasted coffee prepared as cold brew at the Fullsteam brewery, then finished with lactose. A well-executed coffee porter—as this one is—becomes a thing of genius, because of the concentrated flavor of the roasted coffee beans. If a stout is just a porter with roasted malt, then a coffee porter delivers a remarkably similar experience while still being its own unique thing.

The inclusion of lactose may seem like an afterthought with the boldness of the coffee, but it creates a creamy, velvety mouthfeel here. You can definitely discern the sweetness of the milk sugar, and that intertwines well with the malt profile that leans heavily on barley. Coffee is for Closers is the Cadillac Eldorado of American porters, so give yourself a break from higher-octane beers as we approach spring seasonals. Just remember the rules Alec Baldwin laid out in Glengarry Glen Ross: ABC. “A,” always. “B,” be. “C,” chugging. ALWAYS BE CHUGGING. Always be chugging.

For more info, check out Fullsteam here.