When most people think about girl scouts, they think about cookies, not beer, but Jim Woods and Matt Coelho are different than most people.
The two men own Ceverceria de MateVeza, a craft brewery in San Francisco. They took the idea of girl scout cookies, a once a year treat enjoyed almost universally, and recreated it as a beer that can be enjoyed year round.
"One of our customers brought in a box of Samoas, which happened to be my favorite, and one of our 'beertenders' said, 'This would taste pretty good with a beer,'" Woods said. "I said, 'I bet I could brew all the Girl Scout cookies.'"
That simple idea brought about Girl Scout cookie beer. They had to act quickly, as the cookie sales were ending three days after the fateful conversation took place, on March 17.
"We brewed all five beers in one day, which was quite a feat," Woods said. "I was able to source all the ingredients prior and got them on tap just in time."
During the process of making the beer, Woods, Coelho and their "beertenders" ate quite a lot of cookies as part of the "research and development phase" of the beer making process, according to Woods.
The result of their work was the development of five craft brews, Salted Stout with Peanut Butter, based on Peanut Patties, Belgian Dubbel with Cocoa Nibs and Coconut, based on Samoas, Peanut Butter Cream Ale, based on Do-si-dos, Peppermint Porter, based on Thin Mints and Shortbread Golden Ale, based on Trefoils. All of them sold out immediately at prices from $6 to $9.
"People were really impressed at how closely they matched," Woods said. They encouraged their patrons to drink the beer before eating the complementary cookies so their palate wouldn't be negatively affected by the sweetness of the cookies.
While neither of them are expecting the Girl Scouts to begin offering a beer making merit badge, they did have a positive response from ex-Scouts.
"We did have some ex-Girl Scouts that were a lot older, come in that really liked the beers," Woods said. "It was very nostalgic for them to try the beers."
"We'll definitely brew them again next year," he added.
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