Beer brewed with doughnuts to go on sale in Manhattan

US brewer Manhattan Brewing Company has teamed up with Varsity Donuts to create a maple bacon doughnut-flavoured beer.

The beer, named Varsity MBD Stout, is set to be on tap at the end of February 2023 at Manhattan Brewing Company taproom and is anticipated to be between 10-12% ABV.

Manhattan Brewing Company owner Jake Voegeli told the Kansas State Collegian: “People love Manhattan Brewing Company and Varsity, so this is a great marriage of the two. It’s an awesome collaboration with two great Manhattan businesses that’s long overdue, and we don’t know why we waited so long.”

Varsity Donuts owner Kevin Peirce said: “One of our most popular doughnuts is the maple bacon doughnut, so we just thought ‘what if we made a beer out of it?’ It’s not a combination of what you’d normally think of, but it’s going to be good.”

Voegeli explained: “The doughnuts are really cool because when we throw them into the vat to brew, the yeast eats the sugar and creates alcohol, meaning the sugar ferments, so the sugar from the doughnuts gives the beer both alcohol and flavour.”

Peirce added: “We dumped 50 pounds of maple bacon doughnut mash into a beer vat with smoked malt…making a stout, thick, dark and very sweet beer.”

Varsity MBD Stout will be sold at Manhattan Brewing Company tap in 8-ounce glasses priced at US$6-US$7.50 per beer.

Additionally, Voegeli revealed that Manhattan Brewing Company intends to release further quirky collaborations with local businesses and said: “We are getting ready to do a beer with Rock-A-Belly Deli next month. It’s not ready yet, but it’s going to be a fruity, raspberry brown ale. It’s an old recipe that Rich Markle, the owner of Rock-A-Belly, used when he brewed a long time ago.”