Bestest Part of Waking Up

Alvarado Street Brewery — Salinas, CA

25 Oct 2019 · Stephen

Imperial Stout Alvarado Street Brewery

8.0% ABV

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return ✓

4 / 4 I'd order another

Tasting Notes

Appearance Near-black, pouring with the classic nitrogen cascade — swirling clouds settling into a deep dark body with a dense, persistent tan head. On nitro draft this pour is one of the great visual experiences in a stout glass. In a can it's nearly as beautiful.

Aroma Coffee leads — not the light-roast breakfast coffee of a session stout but a full, rich, dark-roast quality that signals this is the imperial version. Behind it, cacao adds a bitter chocolate depth that's distinct from sweet milk chocolate — this is real cocoa, earthy and dark. The vanilla comes in last, softer and warmer, tying the coffee and cacao together into something that smells like a very good mocha with ambitions.

Palate The nitro mouthfeel is everything — smooth, creamy, and velvety in a way that makes 8% ABV completely invisible. The coffee character carries through the middle with the cacao adding bitterness and depth behind it, while the vanilla rounds the back half into something softer and sweeter than a purely roast-forward imperial stout.

Finish Medium-long, clean, and coffee-forward. The dark roast bitterness lingers with the cacao, the vanilla fading first and leaving a dry, mocha-adjacent close that resolves completely without heaviness. At 8% the finish has real warmth — present but integrated, never hot.

The Verdict

The name is a deliberate grammatical crime committed in service of a very good beer. The best part of waking up, made bestest. Coffee, cacao, vanilla, nitro, 8% ABV — Alvarado Street's imperial stout statement

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 25 Oct 2019