In the world of beer, when you hear the word “stout,” what comes to mind? Likely you’re imagining a black ale with aromas and flavors you associate with “dark” or “black,” such as coffee, dark chocolate, burnt sugars, roasted nuts, perhaps even heavily toasted or charred bread.

You wouldn’t be wrong; this is the template for modern stout beers, and the characteristic flavors and colors of the style derive from the use of heavily roasted grains.

Now what would you think if you heard the term “white stout”? It sounds like an oxymoron, because how could a style whose flavors relied on dark, even blackened ingredients possibly be otherwise?

As it turns out, brewers have figured out ways to re-create those flavors in pale beers, dubbing such creations white, blonde, or golden stout. By relying on ingredients such as coffee and chocolate, brewers are able to imbue characteristics normally associated with the style into a brew, without necessarily adding color. Worthy Brewing Co. recently released one that shows how — Icarus Blonde Stout.

According to Worthy head brewer Brian Chapman, he found inspiration from Portland’s Cascade Brewing Company, which has made Oblique, a white stout brewed with coffee, for nearly a decade. His recipe for Icarus began more as a strong golden ale, brewed with Vienna malt for nutty, rich flavors and lactose (milk sugar) for some sweetness and body.

“We then, like other examples you may find, used cold brew from our friends at Coffee4Kids to help this beer mimic a stout while lacking the roasted malts,” he said via email. “The cold brew isn’t enough to give this beer the complexity we were looking for. While we do get some of the roast character, we were lacking some of the rich flavors you might find. So we added chocolate after fermentation to layer in more flavor and help this avoid becoming just a coffee blonde ale.”

Vanilla also went into the brew, adding another layer of flavor to complement the coffee and chocolate. I asked about the inspiration behind Icarus; Chapman didn’t cite any particular influence, but wanted to try something new and fun.

“I can’t say that I’ve seen many white or blonde stouts around Bend, and I certainly don’t see them often,” Chapman said. “I remember being blown away drinking Oblique from Cascade Brewing while I was just finding my love for craft beer. I had never really had anything like it at the time, and I hope our patrons can have that same experience with Icarus.”

I acquired a growler of the beer to try it out for myself. The beer is 7.3% alcohol by volume with 33 IBUs.

It certainly doesn’t look like what you’d expect a stout to be, instead presenting a deep copper color that looks like honey when held up to the light. The aroma has a prominent vanilla scent with mellow sweetened coffee that adds a light roast quality. There are hints of cocoa nibs that give a slight character of chocolate cake.

The roasty (but not bitter) coffee is the predominant flavor, and if I closed my eyes and were tasting this blind, I could believe it was a dark stout. The coffee and light chocolate replace the contribution that dark, roasted malts would bring, and it has some sweetness to offset this roasty flavor without becoming dessert-like.

Based on aroma and flavor alone, I would say that Icarus is plausibly and successfully a stout. Worthy brewed a limited amount of the beer on its five-barrel pilot system, and its popularity “has sparked a few conversations around brewing more of it,” Chapman said. “I’d love to try and get a version of it in barrels as well.”