Cellarest Beer Project Debuts Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager In Collaboration With Riverbend Malt House and Asheville’s Coffee Library

Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager Debuts in Asheville:

Asheville’s Cellarest Beer Project is taking the idea of a morning coffee and turning it into something decidedly more interesting: beer. The West Asheville brewery has released Bimble, a blonde-hued coffee lager created through a collaboration with Riverbend Malt House and Coffee Library. The result combines locally focused brewing with specialty coffee and a carefully selected malt bill.

Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager is the latest chapter in Riverbend Malt House’s pallet coffee program with Coffee Library, which began as a way to give breweries purchasing full pallets of malt a special coffee blend to fuel their brewing teams. For the third installment, Cellarest joined the project and helped select coffees from Brazil and Mexico that would ultimately shape the beer’s flavor profile.

The finished lager brings together coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, brown sugar, toffee and honeyed biscuit notes, while Cellarest’s use of an acacia wood foudre and German lager yeast adds another layer to the brewing process. Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager is currently pouring on draft, with 16-ounce four-packs expected to arrive at the brewery soon.

Here is the full announcement about Bimble from Cellarest Beer Project, Riverbend Malt House and Coffee Library:

ASHEVILLE, NC— Cellarest Beer Project just released Bimble, blonde-hued lager made with Riverbend Malt House’s most recent pallet coffee blend by Coffee Library. Cans of this storied beer will be available soon.

In 2025, Riverbend Malt House launched their pallet coffee program in tandem with local coffee roaster Coffee Library. The Asheville-based maltster wanted to thank their customers who purchased full pallets of malt with an added treat— because most brewing teams are fueled by morning coffee, partnering with Coffee Library on a specialty blend was a natural fit. Brewers absolutely loved it, and the program continued with a second blend last year. Now, Riverbend is excited to involve West Asheville’s beloved Cellarest Beer Project, who have invested in local ingredients since day one, in the third blend of their unfolding coffee program.

Enter Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager. The teams at Riverbend and Cellarest gathered for a cupping at Coffee Library to select two coffees to be included in the blend: one from Brazil and another from Mexico. The naturally processed Brazilian coffee is of the Catuai varietal of the coffee plant, grown and harvested at an altitude of 1100 MASL in the Cerrado Mineiro Region of the Minas Gerais state. The washed-processed Mexican coffee was grown and harvested in the Zangolica, Veracruz region of Mexico at an altitude ranging from 1250-1700 MASL. The Brazilian coffee’s notes of almond, brown sugar, and milk chocolate beautifully complement the notes of cinnamon, cocoa, and baking spice flavors of the Mexican coffee. 

“I wanted to encourage more cocoa and depth to the Mexican coffee’s brown sugar and cinnamon notes, and the Brazilian seemed to provide that,” says Cellarest Co-Founder and Director of Fermentation Mark R. Goodwin. 

“The Mexico coffee provides that nice warm, subtle spice and the Brazil enhances the creaminess and cocoa, chocolate notes,” adds Noah Marines, Head Roaster and Certified Q Arabica Grader at Coffee Library. 

The resulting beer has incredible depth of flavor with a range of notes from fresh coffee and to cocoa, cinnamon, and brown sugar; to light toffee and honey-covered biscuits from its malt additions. Bimble was made with Riverbend Southern Select, Great Chit, Vienna, and Double Kilned Munich styles and hopped with Willamette hops. It was fermented cold with Cellarest’s preferred German Lager yeast inside of an acacia wood foudre. 

Bimble, a word that represents a relaxed— even aimless— journey taken without haste, is an apt name for this exploration of flavors. The result of these rambles between this trifecta of local Asheville businesses is now on draft at Cellarest Beer Project. Sixteen-ounce canned 4-packs will be available to-go from the brewery in coming weeks. For more details on Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager, Follow @cellarestbeerproject on Instagram and Facebook for can release details. 

Cellarest Beer Project Bimble Coffee Blonde Lager collaboration arrives as Asheville’s craft beer scene continues to push the boundaries of lager brewing, wood fermentation and local ingredients. MyBeerBuzz has also been following the broader Asheville brewing community, including recent coverage of New Belgium’s La Folie Reserve Thai Tea, Burial Beer Company’s 13th Anniversary release, and the latest Hi-Wire Brewing releases and Asheville collaborations. Together, those stories highlight the creativity and collaborative spirit continuing to define the Asheville beer scene.

ABOUT CELLAREST BEER PROJECT

Cellarest was co-founded by native North Carolinians Harrison Fahrer and Mark Goodwin in 2020. A longstanding dream of Mark’s, he wanted to showcase his passion for brewing and extend his experience with wood aging and wood fermenting lagers and wild mixed culture beers. Today Cellarest exists as a carbon neutral, community focused brewery in West Asheville. The brewery uses 100% NC malted grains always, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible, to share our penchant for quality collaboration and craft brewing with locals and visitors alike. Learn more at cellarestbeerproject.com.

ABOUT COFFEE LIBRARY

Coffee Library is an innovative specialty coffee company known for its expertise in blend architecture and its unconventional approach to coffee as an experience. The company works with hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, hospitality brands, corporations and consumers to create everything from unique private label blends to full service wholesale programs, while specializing in brand collaborations, corporate gifting and immersive coffee experiences. With capabilities spanning coffee consulting, sourcing, roasting, equipment/maintenance, barista training, menu development and experiential design, Coffee Library approaches the entire coffee journey as an opportunity to turn your brand into a multi-sensory experience. Visit Coffee Library online at coffeelibrary.com.

ABOUT RIVERBEND MALT HOUSE

Riverbend Malt House is on a quest to connect Southeastern family owned farms and fermenters. Co-Founders Brent Manning and Brian Simpson launched Riverbend, the first craft malthouse east of the Mississippi River, in Asheville, North Carolina in 2010. Buoyed by a 70,000 foot production facility and state of the art equipment, Riverbend Malt House helps breweries and distilleries large, small, and in-between stand out with flavor, locality, and community in an increasingly competitive landscape— all the while challenging the status quo of corporate, big-agriculture malt. Learn more at riverbendmalt.com.

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