Thimble Island “Off-the-Branch” Imperial Red Ale and Powdered Donut Cookies

This is a departure from some of our other beer choices. Overall, we want to include beer that is generally available to get during a typical weekend trip. More frequently, I find CT breweries are doing limited runs or one-time special beers to experiment and increase interest, but since this is a guide to what a CTer could expect to find, we try to steer away from these special batches.

All that said, I could not resist when I saw this in my local store!

The Beer: Off-the-Branch from Thimble Island Brewery is billed as an imperial red ale brewed with apple, cinnamon, and (just for kicks) apple cider donuts. Red ales use malts that tend to give a caramel profile and the apple and cinnamon melded well with that. I found the apple flavor to be subtle and authentic. This beer comes in at a respectable 7% and, while mostly smooth, does have a little bit of booze on the back-end. Lastly, I am not sure I get too much from the donut, except for some slight sweetness. 

The Cookie: I had a lot of ideas on what to pair with this beer, but wanted to stay away from apples to avoid clashes in the nature of the fruit flavor. Ultimately, all I could picture was having a nice donut alongside a glass of the ale, aided by some timely social media posts by Thimble Island. I started with a mexican cinnamon cookie recipe, but instead of rolling in cinnamon sugar pre-bake, I stole a technique from italian snowball cookies and tossed in powdered sugar immediately after removing from the oven. In the end, a nice sweet exterior, medium crunch on the bottom from the bake and a soft and chewy center with round cinnamon notes from the batter.

The Pairing: Overall the pairing was a success! The beer’s slight sweetness went well with the sugar coating on the cookie. The apple-cinnamon motif between them was harmonious and the liberal use of butter in the cookie kept the hop bitterness from overwhelming the flavors. We tried the bite-sip and the dunk and, while both work the bite-sip gives a better experience.