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"I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer. The future's uncertain and the end is always near," crooned Jim Morrison and the Doors in the song "Roadhouse Blues." Nowadays, an increasing number of brewers are adding coffee to their porters and stouts to produce beer that you might actually want to down as an eye-opener.

But, a Food and Drug Administration crackdown on caffeinated alcoholic beverages might prove to be a buzz kill for this emerging style.

On Nov. 13, the FDA sent a letter to 30 manufacturers warning "there are no food additive regulations that permit the addition of caffeine at any level in alcoholic beverages."

The agency has given the companies a month to present scientific evidence the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe.

The FDA was prompted in part by complaints from the attorneys general of 18 states that such high-octane energy drinks can be addictive and can create wide-awake drunks who are unable to judge their level of impairment and are therefore prone to engage in risky behaviors such as driving under the influence.

"I didn't know we were starting a new category," says Dave Engbers, co-owner of Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was referring to his Breakfast Stout, a cold-weather seasonal brewed with Kona and Sumatra coffee and two kinds of chocolate and oatmeal. The hefty winter warmer (8.3 percent alcohol by volume) is full of roasty and bittersweet chocolate flavor with some spicy hops peeping through.

Most of the beverages on the FDA's hit list are caffeinated spirits such as the vodka and tequila made by Pink and flavored malt beverages such as Four Loko.

However, among the recipients of the FDA's letter is the Ithaca Beer Co. in Ithaca, N.Y., which briefly marketed a beer called Eleven, a coffee stout specially brewed for the company's 11th anniversary.

Charlie Papazian, president of the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association, speculated the FDA's complaint against Ithaca Beer was "inadvertent."

"They seem to be going after products that have pure caffeine added," he said, but "brewers should be concerned. This could lead the FDA to question beverages that get their caffeine from natural products like coffee, chocolate or tea. Who's to say where this will end?"

Mike McCarthy, director of brewing operations for Capitol City Brewing Co. in Arlington, Va., expressed some sympathy for the FDA's concerns. Nevertheless, McCarthy says his beer Fuel, a 9-percent-alcohol imperial stout flavored with coffee beans presents no danger. The recipe, he says, calls for blending two kegs of a concentrated coffee solution with 26 kegs of stout. To encourage moderation, Capitol City serves the beer in 10-ounce goblet glasses instead of pints.

Most brewers, however, are unable to say how much caffeine is in their coffee beers. "We're in it for the flavor, not the buzz," says Russ Klisch, president of the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, which markets a coffee stout called Fuel Cafe.

1 comment:

• ratsass (127) posts 6:31 pm

  Ya Baby, now just throw a cigarette in there and I am ready to catch the red eye.

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