Evil comes in many forms...

The latest chapter in the Necessary Evil Saga comes courtesy of our Peak District neighbours SeaMoor Coffee, and is like nothing we’ve done before.

Necessary Evil Coffee is a single origin coffee, aged in the same bourbon barrels in which we age our legendary Imperial Stout. This gives the coffee an incredibly complex and sophisticated flavour profile, from the whiskey, the beer and the beans themselves.

After brewing the base beer of Necessary Evil, we poured it into real bourbon whiskey barrels we sourced from Kentucky, and aged it for 8 months, carefully monitoring it’s progress to make the perfect Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. When the beer is ready, we give the barrels to SeaMoor to work their magic.

The beans used in this coffee are Red Bourbon coffee beans, sourced from the Izuba washing station in Kabaroe, Burundi. Before roasting, the still green beans are aged for 16 days in the barrels, allowing them to absorb the flavours and aromas of the beer and bourbon that once were there. The fruity lychee and pomegranate character of the beans are elevated by the ageing process, and the coffee takes on notes of vanilla, oak, dark chocolate and roasted malt. The end result is a spectacular coffee, to be savoured and cherished.

We have seen this process used to remarkable effect overseas, as a few US breweries and roasteries have collaborated by using beer and bourbon barrels to age coffee. Modern Times is one example of a brewery that doubles as a roastery, creating their own beer and bourbon barrel aged coffee. With our own ongoing barrel projects, and with such a great roastery on our doorstep, we could not ignore this chance to innovate.

Both SeaMoor and we are fiercely proud of our place in the Peak District, which serves as a constant source of inspiration for what we do. We try to hearken back to our rugged surrounds in our drinks, and capture nature in truly natural ingredients, whether they are hops and malt or single origin coffee beans.