Coco Nitro Bourbon Barrel-Aged Darkness
Surly Brewing Co.

A - Pours out opaque black, warm but solid darkness, with a lighter tan head, very dense, fading to thick partial cap.

S - A big front of booze, roasted malts, vanilla and wood, all mingling to produce a punchy barrel-forward nose of an alcohol-soaked stout.

T - Chocolate is in the front, with a savory malty note coming quick behind, while the vanilla and barrel come forward with coconut notes through the middle, and a big blast of alcohol and thin acidity in the finish. The lingering aftermath returns to the chocolate and savory notes of the open.

M - The nitro experience is most obvious here, and it is actually surprisingly welcome. As with most nitro beers, the mouthfeel lightens, and becomes smoother and cleaner, resulting in easier drinking experience, which for a brew this big is helpful. The finish is dry, and there is some prickliness that lingers, but nothing that detracts.

O - I saw some call this a gimmick, and I suppose I can see the point, but if this is a cash grab, they rightly got my money. This is delicious, the nitro really works to soften what could be an overbearing brew, result in a behemoth that drinks as a big stout but does not crush you as some big barrel brews (including, sometimes, Darkness itself) can.

 

This was just unnecessary. An overpriced novelty. Surly used to be about the beer: it's now about the gimmicks. Flat and extra sweet Darkness at $15 a can.

 

 

 

Coco Nitro Bourbon Barrel-Aged Darkness pours black with a larger, long-lasting, tan head. The aroma is very rich, with toasted coconut and chocolate. The flavor is sweet, with lots of vanilla and hints of bitter dark chocolate. It has a great silky feel. It is big, rich, stout, and sweeter, with a great mix of vanilla and chocolate.

Chilled 16 oz can , gift boxed and received in bif18 courtesy of @victory_sabre1973, poured into a pretentious beer glass

brewers notes: We’ve aged Darkness in bourbon barrels before, and we’ve matured it with good friends like coconut, vanilla, and cacao before, but putting it on nitro in market was uncharted territory. Our adventurous spirit was rewarded with the absurdly smooth creaminess of the finished product. You’ve never tasted Darkness like this (literally).

Excellent packaging and artwork

Pitch black motor oil, pencil thick brown foam layer rests atop of the pour, remains intact for 5 + minutes, clinging brown lacings

Aroma is cocoa, bakers chocolate, bourbon, brown sugar

Taste is cocoa, vanilla , bourbon,chocolate cream , milk chocolate , faint coconut , whisper of char,

Absurdly silky smooth , 12% abv is well hidden , no heat, no sudsing , no carbonation, syrupy sweet but not cloyingly so

Good beer, recommended, obscene bar, thanks for sharing!

Pours black. Gorgeous, deep, low carbonated, jet fired black. Aroma is bourbon, chocolate and vanilla. Taste is smooth, creamy and very bourbon with lots of chocolate. A bit of vanilla is detectable at the end. All of the Darkness line are great and this is no exception.

Would have been pretty good maybe but definitely zero carbonation from the nitro can.. Unfortunate flatness, hard to say.
Zero head
Hard to judge
Used wife to compare to Founders KBS
Overpriced piece of art instead of good beer, sad face.
Appearance: black
Smell: malty
Taste: debatable delicious but being flat hard to say..
Mouthfeel: silky smooth, but would say even for a nitro hard to give any points for bubbles. Tragic.
Overall: good beer delivered in a terrible way, this was my first $15 surly single box/can beer. I will most likely stick to the $7 sours/IPA they have. And I love stout beers..

Brief Review:

O: First variant of the year for me here, interested to see the nitro here. Sadly, a little disappointed. I tried pouring aggressive, but it still came out flat. Smooth? Yes. But the lack of traditional carbonation hurts the beer. The flavors are actually decent though. Nice chocolate and slight coconut, vanilla coming in pretty faint, but that’s okay.

Recommendation: Decent flavors are held back by the underwhelming nitro presence. Still worth a try though, as nitro BA beers are pretty rare.

Can. Tan head. Dark brown color, nearing black.

Cocoa and coconut. Sweet fudge. Warming bourbon, oak, some char. Pretty big barrel flavor. Molasses and raisin. Hershey’s syrup. Still has the darkness base flavor. Decent, but nothing crazy. Not sure how much the nitro can does.

16oz can. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, nitro-foamy, light brown head. It left sheets of lace on the glass. It smelled of toasted coconut, chocolate, molasses, bourbon and oak. Sweet toasted coconut, chocolate, vanilla, bourbon and oak taste.

Surly Coco Nitro BBA Darkness Imperial Stout, 12% ABV. Pours thick and black with a half-finger beige head that persisted and left no lacing. Nose is cacao, bourbon, and coconut. Taste is strong cacao and coconut, bourbon, moderately sweet, slightly bitter. Outstanding nitro creaminess, overall outstanding.

From a 16oz can canned on 10/30/23

This beer is pitch black pouring, and there is no light at all shining through the glass. It looked pretty thick while pouring. Overall the head was quite strange. It started out looking like there was going to be no head as I was pouring the beer. A head started to from after I was done pouring, but looked quite pathetic, just a few large bubbles. Eventually there was a 1/2 finger head that formed, and it went from looking pathetic to looking frothy, and fluffy. Very long head retention and, a good ring of lacing on the glass.
The aroma is just packed full of chocolate. I could get some hints of chocolate when I was pouring the beer. The chocolate does seem a bit sweeter, not very dark, and more of a milk chocolate. I am also getting notes of dark fruit - raisin, plum - vanilla, caramel, and coffee.
Taste - I am getting tons of milk chocolate in the flavor. It reminds me of a malted milk ball candy. The chocolate is sweeter, and not dark leaning, but not over the top sweet. I do get a faint char flavor, that is pleasing to me. I also get notes of the base beer, with hints of caramel, dark fruit, vanilla and coffee.
This beer is so damn smooth feeling. Creamy mouthfeel. Very full feeling. There's just the faintest hint of a burn.
I was not impressed with the base beer this year, it was just over the top bitter, but this is quite delicious. I am getting none of the problems I got with the regular Darkness this year.

16oz can. Bottom stamp reads 'CANNED ON 10/30/23'.
Black colored body, with a mahogany back lit edge. Very thin tan head, with evolves to a partial cap and a ring. Leaves behind a ring remnant of lacing.
Aroma of dark roasted malts, bourbon barrel, oak, coconut, chocolate, and vanilla.
Taste is based on bourbon barrel aged dark roasted malts, with the main adjunct being dark chocolate. Also has the sweetness of vanilla, and coconut which emerges late. Oak barrel. Chocolate fudge, with vanilla and a little coconut, in the aftertaste.
Thick and sticky mouth feel. Silky smooth texture. Supportive carbonation.
The most prevalent added flavor is the dark chocolate, which ends up as a bourbon soaked fudge, but the coconut and vanilla also add their own flavors. Higher ABV% is well managed but is always present.

Typical black pour of Darkness from a can. Adjuncts and barrel are all pretty subtle on both the aroma and in flavor. Solid but at the price point it could deliver a bit more bourbon and coconut.

At the brew hall, on nitro, which apparently is rare but really smooths things out. Looks amazing in the glass: tons of khaki head, great lacing. Nose and taste are in lock step: silky smooth slightly sweet chocolate, and a little bit of coconut and even less vanilla. Real depth of flavor, even if it doesn’t seem super complex. Very very chocolatey. Mouthful is super smooth and rich.