Tree House Abstraction and Four Flour’s Toffee Coffee

 We have featured some Tree House beer before, and honestly it’s just too good not to pair and enjoy, even though it isn’t from CT, though it is just over the Mass line. Some new  exciting news is there will soon be a Tree House Brewery in CT which has us all pretty psyched. 

 The Beer: Abstraction is an Imperial Porter, at 8.8% abv it really owns the Imperial name. With beers like this, I’m always afraid it will be boozy but it is so well balanced it’s not too boozy or too malty or too anything, it is Goldie Locks style; just right. There are huge chocolate notes, like moist chocolate cake, some caramel and toasty notes too, and a wonderful mildly sweet finish. This is some real winter time, feet by the fire, reading a good book kind of beer. 

The Cookie: The Cookie is from Four Flours, an all natural bakery in down town New Haven for which we will have a bakery visit soon. The toffee coffee cookie has a lot of soft insides but also has a healthy exterior crunch. The toffee Carmel center is crunchy with some chocolate pieces. The coffee pops a little bit too. Overall not too sweet of a cookie, which is exactly what this beer needs. 

The Pairing: The subtly sweet nature of the cookie and the slightly sweet finish of the beer is a wonderful balance. The coffee flavors and the chocolate caramel flavors all swirl around. I’m thinking the lighter body of a porter makes for a better cookie beer than the heavier stout category. One way or another this beer is one of the best beers of 2019 so far and the cookie was made for it.