The latest coffee trend to tap into? Coldbrew on tap.
A select few Northwest coffee purveyors now offer kegs of high-quality coldbrew, available to hook up anywhere there’s a tap handle to spare. As summer approaches and coldbrew cravings return en masse, it’s not unreasonable to expect increasing numbers of bars, restaurants, farmers’ markets and cafés to free up a space for a keg of coffee.
That’s what happened at the Five Point Café in Seattle, the first place in the city to offer local coldbrew newcomers’ Anchorhead Coffee on tap. “We started kegging our coldbrew about a month ago, and Five Point Café had an extra tap. They blew through that keg,” says Mike Steiner of Anchorhead, who has spent the past year roasting and bottling what has become Anchorhead’s signature coldbrew with friend and fellow ex-touring audio engineer Jake Paulson. The two met traveling across the U.S. and around the world with musicians like Third Eye Blind and music fests including Warped Tour, but both dreamed of settling down and pursuing their other passion—coffee. The start-up costs of a full-on coffee shop turned out to be disenchanting, so Steiner and Paulson began with just coldbrew.
They’re not the only ones who’ve found the same niche—Analog Coffee of Seattle began offering cold-brewed Herkimer coffee on tap in 2012, and Stumptown also offers its massively popular coldbrew concentrate in kegs.
Waste-reducing, handy for coldbrew cocktails, and ready in sufficient quantity to quench the Northwest’s coldbrew thirst, Steiner expects the kegged coldbrew phenomenon to continue to grow in popularity. “Our Northwest weather hasn’t encouraged the popularity of coldbrew on tap yet, but right now is a good time to be getting into this,” he says. Give kegged coffee a try this summer.
