My latest article for The Bulletin covers one of those stylistic quirks that seem to be more gimmick than style: white (or golden) stout. It was prompted by just such a beer from Worthy Brewing, Icarus Blonde Stout, a golden ale brewed with coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and lactose to emulate the aromas and flavor of stout in a pale beer.

According to Worthy head brewer Brian Chapman, he found inspiration from Portland’s Cascade Brewing Company, which has made Oblique, a white stout brewed with coffee, for nearly a decade. His recipe for Icarus began more as a strong golden ale, brewed with Vienna malt for nutty, rich flavors and lactose (milk sugar) for some sweetness and body.

“We then, like other examples you may find, used cold brew from our friends at Coffee4Kids to help this beer mimic a stout while lacking the roasted malts,” he said via email. “The cold brew isn’t enough to give this beer the complexity we were looking for. While we do get some of the roast character, we were lacking some of the rich flavors you might find. So we added chocolate after fermentation to layer in more flavor and help this avoid becoming just a coffee blonde ale.”

You can read my impressions of the beer itself at the article. Spoiler: while it’s been some time since I’ve had a beer in this gimmick-style, Worthy’s is pretty good and might just trick you if you have your eyes closed.