Chocolate Pretzel Sunday Morning Stout
Weyerbacher Brewing Co.

Pint can in a stemmed stout glass. Canned on March 14, 2019. Drunk today, January 9, 2022.

Crude oil black pour with a thin dark tan cap that disappeared in a blink. There’s a bit of visible fine bubble activity.

Bourbon and alcohol come on strong. Other aromas include coffee, cocoa, char, vanilla, and oak.

The flavors play off the nose with the addition of salted malt providing its pretzel quality.

Boozed up medium body. Lactose smooth. Vanilla and chocolate notes linger.

Definitely an after dinner sipper brew. Which explains why I’m enjoying it on a cool and quiet Sunday evening.

 

Barrel-aged coffee stout with cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, lactose, and sea salt. Poured from a can into a Listermann's pub glass. The pour is like the regular Sunday Morning Stout - dark, not too viscous, and with a decent head of brown foam. The nose is also like regular Sunday Morning Stout - lots of rich coffee and cocoa with traces of toasted oak and vanilla.

Full body with a silky feel and a smooth, roasty flavor. Up front I get toffee, cocoa, and a hint of marshmallow, then lots of rich (not bitter) coffee and more cocoa. At mid-palate, bourbon, vanilla, and toasted oak join the party. Finishes with a nice hint of warm booziness that adds richness to the flavor.

Like regular Sunday Morning Stout, only with more cocoa and a hint of saltiness that cuts through the bitterness of the roast a bit and smooths it out. A nice variant, but not all that different from the regular version and I must admit I didn't think it was worth the upcharge. Still, a darn good coffee stout that very few out there can claim superiority over.

A: Pours a thick viscous opaque jet black in color with light amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and faint extremely dark cola brown + extremely dark chestnut brown colored highlights. The beer has a two finger tall dense sudsy foamy very dark mocha colored head that slowly reduces to a handful of small to medium sized patches of thin film and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light to moderate amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Strong aromas of dark chocolate, cacao nibs, cocoa over the top of moderate to strong aromas of dark + roasted + charred malts with a slightly stronger than moderate amount of lactose sweetness. There are moderate aromas of roasted coffee, vanilla, caramel, and bourbon as well as light to moderate aromas of toasted oak + brininess.

T: Upfront there are moderate to strong flavors of dark + roasted + charred + caramel + chocolate malts with a slightly stronger than moderate amount of lactose sweetness. That is followed by strong flavors of dark chocolate, cacao nibs, and cocoa. Moderate flavors of roasted coffee + vanilla + bourbon with a moderate presence of bourbon barrels (toasted oak, caramel, vanilla). Finally there are light flavors of brininess. There is a light amount of roasty bitterness which fades away pretty quickly and leaves a lingering bourbon booziness in the finish.

M: Full bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Smooth with a light amount of alcohol warming in the finish.

O: Drinks pretty easily considering the strength but this is more of a dessert slow sipper. Enjoyable with excellent additions to the base Sunday Morning Stout which work really successfully.

 

 

Pouring from a 16 oz. can into a PAA glass, this beer pours out with a slick blackness just like the other two versions. Pinky width of caramel colored bubbles recede and settle into a ring around the glass. 4

The nose carries a big, warm booziness. It’s like booze soaked chocolate. Not picking up any pretzel. 3.75

The taste brings in what I could see as being a pretzel dough, more so as it warms. But it still carries that boozy chocolate with prominence. 3.75

These drink like they are 15-16% to me. Every one has been big and boozy. This is still more inviting than the original seemed to be though. Another one with lower, almost still carbonation. This one has dry oak on the backend. Sticky sweetness in this one that leads to it feeling thicker than the others. 4

Overall, this might be my favorite over the original and the mole. It remains a little bit one dimensional throughout the entire thing, and that booziness is still kind of hard to understand at only 12%. 3.75

 

This really is not all that different from the "standard" SMS of years' past, of which I had a vintage bottle only a couple weeks prior. That delicious mocha and bourbon combo is still featured prominently, as the syrupy thick body has a hint of charred malt and accents of salted caramel. Super solid and still better than KBS.

After having this for the third time I'm going to finally put a review in for this. Seeing as Weyerbacher has retired this transcendent brew, I feel it's important to create a stream of consciousness for future reference. This review has been written on December 15th, 2019, retroactively from my intial scoring.

Pours a dark brown almost black. If not poured carefully however, it will yield a large head of some of the darkest brown I've ever seen. It comes as quickly as it goes.

Nose is something special. Chocolate and bourbon. Mild booze. This is a delicate, beautiful thing. Most bourbon notes grab you by the nose and yank it into the glass. Whether it's Parabola or Goose Island BCBS the barrel notes are dominant. In this however, it allows space for everything else to blossom. Chocolate is strong, but not too sweet. Malt is present with a very slight smoky quality. And of course the bourbon, savory and nutty. This is one of the best stouts I've ever smelled. Rivaled only by the likes of Black Damnation and Rusty Nail.

Taste follows the nose similarly. A key factor though is the salt. The salt compliments the bourbon and chocolate spectacularly. The sweetness is tapered and the nuttiness is enhanced. The addition of the salt creates a balance and nuance that is quite unique. It also cleans the pallete and leaves you wanting to drink more. Quite like eating a pretzel, it makes you desire the nearest beverage. It may not taste like a chocolate covered pretzel, it alludes to one and succeeds in being extremely enjoyable.

Mouthfeel is fullbodied. Light to medium carbonation. Lively for a stout but not by much. Has a sticky quality, but still the persistence of the salt cuts through this. It's amazing the effect that the salt has on this. It let's it get away with things that another brew might not be able to. The lactose adds a nice smoothness.

This is one of my favorite beers of all time. I've had this on multiple occasions just to make sure that it wasn't just hype I was wrapped up in initially. I've had it on tap at the source and in the can. This brew is remarkable. A masterpiece. So many aspects in play and they're executed so well. Weyerbacher, please...for all that is good in this world...bring this back. Sell it in the winter as a limited release, increase distribution, and maybe bring the price down a little, but keep this in your roster. This is a feather in the cap, jewel in a crown level of brew. I would serve this as a dessert every Christmas to my family. Let the world enjoy this. As for now, I have three cans remaining. And I will cherish every single one. Cheers

 

Solid black color with light carbonation. Body is above average with a creamy oily feel.
Aroma is barrel, bourbon, black coffee, pretzel dough, malt, sweet sugary
Taste is definitely bourbon and coffee forward. Some wood,roasted malt, fudge,chocolate syrup, mill chocolate. A little alcohol but it was really well hidden
Flavors are all there but some are tough to find. Overall it's an excellent beer that's worth a try

16oz can poured into a snifter
A: Pitch black with a one-finger brown head
S: Cocoa, caramel, hints of coffee & vanilla
T: Matches the above adding a bit of salt
M: Full-bodied, fairly sweet, very smooth
O: Very tasty, a nice variation of the original

 

Poured into a snifter.
Look: much like the regular SMS - dark with a small tan head.
Aroma: a big dose of chocolate, bourbon, and vanilla with a hint of salt.
Taste: as expected. Great flavors from the base beer amped up with chocolate and enough salt to induce mouth watering. More salty than most Goses in my experience.
Feel: thick and heavy but not overdone. Slightly warm on the finish.
Overall: really nice. The salt distracted me a bit from the other flavors, but very enjoyable.

 

 

**
05/26/19

Can to snifter.

LOOK: Thick dark black color. No head. Poor retention.

AROMA: bourbon and salt,

**
09/28/19



**

Pitch black in color with no head at all. I smell cocoa, salt, and lactose. I’m tasting bourbon, cocoa, salt, and coffee. The mouth is dry, thick, chewy, and yet smooth. There’s a bit of warmth from the alcohol.