Holy Nights
Kane Brewing Company

 

2022-04-09
500ml bottle served in a footed pilsner glass. 2021 release. My bottle says it's 9.1% abv, as opposed to the listing's 10.7%. Received from @jonphisher because he's just a nice guy.

Pours with a surprisingly large light tan head, maybe two inches with a vigorous pour, which fades into a stable looking half-centimeter of dense, creamy foam. Small amount of active carbonation. Black in color, completely opaque. Smell is screaming chocolate and marshmallow (which I assume is the vanilla), if I think about coconut it comes across as a Mounds bar. Coffee is noticeable, too, but you have to kind of look for it -- it's hiding behind the chocolate.

Taste is also dominated by the chocolate and coconut, the vanilla is more of a background. Coffee is clearer here than in the nose. Sweetness is moderate, balanced fairly well by strong roastiness, somewhat boozy.

Mouthfeel is thick and chewy. Overall, this is a very nice beer.

Pours a very dark cola brown color from the bottle and settles as almost black in the glass with a substantial, creamy tan head. Lovely, but almost looks like an imperial porter (I’m parsing here). The nose is astounding, with rich cocoa notes forward and a nice vanilla and subtle coconut note following - and roasty coffee.

That roasty coffee is at the very back of the palate on the taste, allowing the cocoa and vanilla to shine before closing things and adding a lot of character to a rich, creamy imperial stout that is packed with flavor, yet maintains a balance that is to be admired.

World class stuff here, IMHO.

 

**
12/24/2020

Can to snifter.

LOOK: thick dark black,

AROMA: cocoa and coconut with coffee lingering behind.

TASTE: sweet cocoa with a touch of bitterness (we'll call it semisweet). hints of maple, coconut, fig, raisin. Don't really get the Rook coffee, but everything else is super tasty.

FEEL: thick and syrupy, sticky, low carbonation, full body. almost gelatinous.

Really tasty. Lacking in complexity, but this is just right for Christmas Eve dessert with some cookies.

Merry Christmas!
**
12/28/20

Decided this was not for aging and opened my 2nd bottle.

Sour on it a little. Super thick and really lacking carbonation. Sweet cocoa gets cloying after 3-4 oz. Still super tasty in a small sip and the aromatics are lovely.

4.22--->4.05
**

 

 

A: silky dark jet black color with a thin dark tan head

S: coconut, sweet malt, roasted malt, soy sauce , cola, vanilla beans, and oak. Great aroma

T: sweet coconut, milk chocolate, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, sticky toffee

M: sticky, heavy mouthfeel with lower carbonation

O: not usually a fan of coconut stouts , but this is quite good. Smooth, sweet, and robust. Sip on this and enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most beautiful blacks I've seen in a beer, particularly due to the starkly contrasting, insanely fine borderline separating the liquid from the solidly light brown head that's quite tall and densely creamy, settling slowly to a thin blanket leaving fluid 90's camo-like lace.

Smell is peanut butter covered coffee bean, cacao nib and sweet vanilla glaze.

Taste is all over the coffee spectrum with dark roast, mocha, light smoke and char, nuttiness and even ice cream. The bitter constitution has accents of cacao and sweet spikes of vanilla, but overall this is a coffee showcase, so it's probably fabulous super fresh, but is still great a few months down the road.

The medium, smoothly slick body has a slow to rise but fulfilling carbonation bringing out a light sting of warmth and bitterness finishing with a faint semi-dry sting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours very dark, massive foamy head with aggressive pour. Tastes delicious! Aroma is chocolate and lots of coconut, faint coffee. Flavor is chocolate and coffee that is swiftly overrun by fresh coconut, a touch of vanilla, and finishes with lingering coconut. Amazing. Very thick and viscous, perfect carbonation. Overall an amazing beer, love the coconut and chocolate!!

12/24/18
750ml bottle from brewery, 2018 vintage
4.5 rating

Update - 6 months later, the adjuncts have faded a little, but still very chocolatey and delicious. 6/25/19

12/20/20 - update: massive chocolate aroma and flavor, coconut is absent, coffee is very faint, vanilla is in the background.. Still delicious, not the coconut bomb like previous iterations. Bottle release yesterday.

1/19/23 - update - still pours with a massive, dense head that is delicious, loads of chocolate and coffee on the nose, flavor is mainly chocolate overload with sweet vanilla, moderate coffee, can’t taste the coconut :(
Still amazing and I will always buy it.

 

 

 

For me, this is the perfect beer. Looks black as night. Smells like chocolate milk. Tastes like chocolate milk with a touch of spice. Not boozy at all. Thick, creamy, delicious!

 

 

I really enjoyed the latest batch of Silent Nights and was really looking forward to trying this variant. It was even better than expected. Very chocolatey and complex, yet balanced flavor. The nitro version is super creamy, but I think I prefer the non-nitro version. Hopefully Kane will bottle this one.

 

From 02/20/16 notes. 8 oz. pour on tap at the brewery in NJ. Nitro.

Pours a dark brown, almost black color, with one inch of dark tan head and moderate carbonation evident.
Coffee grinds, interesting spices and nose, taste is more dark chocolate, roasted malts, burnt malts, lightly bitter. Nose has honey maybe? And Cocoa powder. Thick full body and moderate carbonation.

Overall a very good beer and better than Silent Nights, though I still prefer MB and ANTEAD.