Photo courtesy of Narragansett Brewing.

Andrew Augustus, WPRO News

After selling out in just one week a year ago, Narragansett Brewing’s Autocrat Coffee Milk Stout returns to shelves for its annual release.

“We’ve never really done anything like that before and we knew people would love the beer, but we tapped a vein that was so deep and so powerful, so it caught us by surprise,” said President of Narragansett Brewing Mark Hellendrung.

Over the summer, the company released their Del’s Shandy which was a success and brought more customers to the brand. Hellendrung says the shandy brought in a lot of female customers and hopes the stout will bolster their craft credentials.

The releases has opened the company up to a larger variety of beer drinking and even tapped into the wine and spirits consumers.

The stout was first released in December of 2013 and the 5,000 cases were sold out in a week.

“This year we brought it back early and it launched on Monday, September 29 and it will be available though mid January,” said Hellendrung. “We made a lot more and we also brought it out in 12-pack bottles.”

He says the beer will be in production through mid January and there will be plenty during the season.

There will be a free launch party at Fete in Providence on October 4 at 4 p.m.

Hellendrung also hinted future collaboration plans the company has. “We’re going to have something coming in January that’s also deeply Rhode Island; not as big as these other two but I think it will certainly hit a certain part of Rhode Island’s population.