Funky Fluid Coffee Point Five

Browar Funky Fluid is a Polish brewer located in Warsaw. It was founded in September 2018 by Michał Langier and Karol Mizielski, a pair of brewers who separately had been brewing and selling various craft ales in their native Poland. With similar ideas as to brewing and beer in general, the duo agreed to join forces, and as Funky Fluid they have been churning out a vast array of beers over the last few years. In 2020 they were listed third in RateBeer’s New Brewer Awards. Becoming a trio with the addition of Grzegorz Korcz, organiser of the One More Beer Festival, they continue to innovate the local and international beer scene, with particular focus on IPAs; maybe not the most stereotypical style of Polish beer.

Funky Fluid’s beers not only veer to the more hoppier affairs, they tend to also involve a lot of fruit. Offerings such as Fruitzilla, Double Gelato Frugtsalad and Lout Tempest pack in honeyberry, cherry, redcurrant, blueberries, banana, kiwi, raspberry, pink guava, prickly pear amongst them. Fruits work well in NEIPAs due to the juicy nature of them, but the brewer has gone one step further here with the addition of coffee in their Coffee Point Five. Using an Ethiopian coffee roasted by Polish coffee roasters HAYB, I wonder how the fruity flavours will work with the smoky bitterness. Sure, coffee works great in stouts and porters, as we’ve seen before. I’m just worried that the juiciness we’re expecting from a New England IPA will be lost with too much coffee flavour, and vice versa. Let’s crack the can open and see shall we?

The beer pours a hazy grapefruit juice colour, and could well be mistaken for a fruit juice were it not for the good frothy head that it produces. On the nose it’s certainly more of a NEIPA, as we get grapefruit citrus, tropical lychee and mango fruit aromas, a touch of coconut, and only very slight coffee aromas, especially compared with other coffee brews we’ve tried. They’ve nailed the NEIPA aromas though!

On tasting is where the coffee really comes to the fore. Milder than a black coffee, more like an iced-coffee, the bitter smokiness is certainly there initially, mellowing into a more chocolate flavour with a toffee sweetness. Tropical fruit follows on, with juicy mango and a mild citrus sweetness balancing the flavours out. Lots of body here, I think thanks to the oat and wheat flakes used in the brewing, meaning the mouthfeel is great. The drink ends with a bitter finish.

Funky Fluid Coffee Point Five is a triumph for the brewer and really shocked me with how tasty and well-balanced the beer is. The last AF coffee/fruit combination I tried was Mikkeller Beer Geek Flat White, and whilst that was a weird combination of citrus and coffee, the fruity NEIPA flavours on show here are the perfect partner for the roasted Malawo Yellow Honey coffee flavours. I could happily drink this for breakfast, but am unsure whether it would be replacing my morning coffee or my morning juice!

Buy Funky Fluid Coffee Point Five

Funky Fluid’s beers are mainly available from specialist craft beer stores. Nab your fix of Coffee Point Five from one of these online retailers:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	<0.5%
Energy	30 kcal
Fat	0g
Carbohydrates	6.3g
Sugar	2.5g
Protein	0.4g
Additional Information
Country of Production	Poland
Brewer	Funky Fluid – https://funkyshop.pl/en/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No