West Asheville’s Cellarest Beer Project has released Bimble, a 4.8% coffee blonde lager brewed with North Carolina malt from Riverbend Malt House and a custom coffee blend from Coffee Library. The beer is on draft now at Cellarest. Sixteen-ounce four-packs are expected at the brewery in the coming weeks.
Bimble is the third chapter of Riverbend’s pallet coffee program. In 2025, the Asheville maltster started thanking full-pallet malt customers with a Coffee Library blend, because brewery mornings usually start with coffee. Brewers liked the first two blends enough that Riverbend invited Cellarest — a brewery that has used local ingredients since it opened — into the third one.
How the coffee blend was chosen
Riverbend and Cellarest cupped coffees at Coffee Library and landed on two lots: a naturally processed Brazilian Catuai from Cerrado Mineiro in Minas Gerais, grown at about 1,100 meters, and a washed Mexican coffee from Zangolica, Veracruz, grown between 1,250 and 1,700 meters. The Brazil side brings almond, brown sugar, and milk chocolate. The Mexico side brings cinnamon, cocoa, and baking spice.
“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,” said 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,” said Noah Marines, head roaster and certified Q Arabica grader at Coffee Library.
What’s in the beer
Bimble is built on Riverbend Southern Select, Great Chit, Vienna, and Double Kilned Munich malts, hopped with Willamette, and fermented cold with Cellarest’s German lager yeast in an acacia wood foudre. The glass shows fresh coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, and brown sugar up front, then light toffee and honey-biscuit notes from the malt.
The name fits. To bimble is to wander without hurry. That is how three Asheville businesses — maltster, roaster, and brewery — arrived at this beer.
About the partners
Cellarest Beer Project was co-founded in 2020 by North Carolinians Harrison Fahrer and Mark Goodwin. The carbon-neutral West Asheville brewery is known for wood-fermented lagers and mixed-culture beers and uses North Carolina malted grain in every beer.
Coffee Library is an Asheville specialty coffee company focused on blend architecture, private-label roasting, and hospitality programs.
Riverbend Malt House, founded in Asheville in 2010 by Brent Manning and Brian Simpson, was the first craft malthouse east of the Mississippi. It connects Southeastern family farms with breweries and distilleries that want local malt instead of commodity grain.
Follow Cellarest Beer Project on Instagram and Facebook for can-release dates. Media questions about Bimble or Riverbend’s pallet coffee program can go to Emily Hutto at Rad Craft Beer.
For more information please visit https://cellarestbeer.com/
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