Brooks Whittington
In August 2016, Tampa-based Cigar City Brewing and The Answer Brewpub in Richmond, Va. joined efforts on the third beer in a series that pooled both brewery’s talents, all of which had one thing in common: coffee.
Dubbed Good Nightmare Mekong, the 10.1 percent ABV imperial stout was brewed with coconut, coffee and cinnamon. The imperial stout is the third time the two breweries collaborated. In March 2014, Good Morning Mekong was released as a draft-only 8.3 percent ABV porter brewed with coffee while Good Night Mekong, a 10 percent ABV imperial stout brewed with Vietnamese coffee and vanilla beans was released in March 2015.
The sales sheet from Cigar City has this to say about the beer:
Good Nightmare Mekong: even your mama wants a taste, and she doesn’t drink. Pesadilla en un vaso. That means “nightmare in a glass”. You’re welcome.
After the warm reception the first incarnation received, it was not exactly a shock when Good Nightmare Mekong was rereleased on Nov. 25, 2016 packaged in 22-ounce bottles and sold exclusively The Answer’s brewpub with a four bottle per person limit. This was different than the first release, which was sold at both breweries.
Good Nightmare Mekong pours and almost pitch black with red highlights, seemingly with a good amount of carbonation, resulting in three fingers worth of tan head that dissipates slowly. There is a fairly thick lacing left behind that sticks around for quite a while, and aroma from the glass is a combination of strong vanilla, coconut, oak, coffee beans, dark chocolate and molasses.
While there was quite a bit of coconut on the nose, the actual flavor profile is quite different, with a huge amount of coffee dominant on the palate, along with some slight vanilla bean and oak flavors that flit in and out. The finish is dominated by a very sweet marshmallow note that is close to cloying, but never actually goes over the line. Interestingly, the coconut is present, but quite a faint, and relegated primarily to the finish, where it is mostly overwhelmed by the aforementioned marshmallow. There is a great amount of carbonation present, and the mouthfeel is creamy without being overly thick.
