Dawn Awaits
Single Hill Brewing

Canned November 2022

Woah, I forgot about this last beer from the LIF box Snaotheous sent me months ago. This sounds like a rather straightforward take on a pastry Stout, a nice way to end my night. Let’s crack it open and find out what it has to offer

Pours a very dark brown with a finger of creamy tan head that fades to a ring and leaves minimal lacing

The nose is gentle as expected given the age, but it’s still quite nice. I’m picking up on aromas of dark chocolate, toasted coconut, earthy cinnamon, blackberry, acidic coffee, burnt caramel, vanilla ice cream, and a light vegetal note from the coffee

It’s a bit more complex in taste and nicely balanced. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting toasted coconut, nougat, red grape, milk chocolate, toffee, vanilla bean, medium roast coffee, and raisin. The swallow brings notes of black cherry, raisin, dark roast coffee, toffee, dark chocolate, vanilla bean, tobacco, red grape, and molasses

A medium full body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a slick beer. Finishes a tad sticky but dries out quickly

Age definitely didn’t do much good for this one, not that I was intending to though. It’s still pretty damn good for what it is

Poured from 12oz can into my 8th Wonder chalice. This is the 2023 edition — canned November 2023, 12.4% ABV.

Appearance: totally black in hue, not letting any light at all pass through. Head is a thinnish finger of creamy tan foam. It looks dark and mysterious, as it should!

Smell: this beer is barrel-aged with coffee, vanilla, cocoa, and coconut, and it smells every bit of it. It’s bourbon-barrel aged, but it doesn’t have too much booziness, despite its ABV. The coffee adds a little bit of a sharp, vegetal quality, that reads as chilies to my nose — which is no problem against the sweet cornucopia in the background. It’s kind of excellent.

Taste: sweet, of course, but rich with chocolate and coconut. The coffee and vanilla play more of a backing role here, for which I’m thankful, because it’s easy to overdo both of those (vanilla especially). I kind of can’t get over how the coffee reads as very mild chilies, and I really kind of love it. This is a damn fine beer.

Mouthfeel: medium-rich body with a good carbonation and a rich, smooth creaminess. I love it, but honestly, even more body would not hurt here!

Overall: this is an outstanding dessert treat. I’ll probably pass out after this, but it’s excellent.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a quarter finger khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, bakers chocolate, coffee, light vanilla and a little coconut. Flavor is dark toasted malt, milk chocolate, light coffee, caramel and coconut; semi-sweet finish with chocolate and coconut. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess; nice silky mouth feel. A slightly sweet, full bodied imperial stout that has great chocolate and coconut character. The coffee is somewhat subdued, but present around the edges. Great mouth feel. Single Hill seems to fly under the radar around here, but has been producing quite nice big stouts for years. This is one of them.