Brewery: Left Hand Brewing
Country: USA
Size: 40cl
ABV: 10.2%
Price: 49kr
Systembolaget: 11347
When I started planning the heavy metal tasting, one of the things I had to be careful of was how many stouts I had in the line up. I found a lot of the rock inspired beers were porters and stouts due to their dark hues but I didn’t want the tasting to be overrun by them. I knew that the darker beers I did choose would have to be special, so I searched hard until I found this from Left Hand Brewing. Wake Up Dead refers to both a famous song by thrash legends Megadeth and a famous lyric shouted by Joey Belladonna on the Anthrax anthem “N.F.L”, so it fitted the theme well. I had tried the Nitro milk stout from this Colorado brewery earlier in the year and enjoyed that so I thought this could be a winner too and luckily it was.
First things first, this was a beautiful looking stout. It was pitch black with a thick body but the main thing that caught the eye was the mocha coloured head. It was truly beautiful. The foam was dense, rich and held for ages and made the beer look amazing. It was so nice to see a stout pour from a can that gave such a lovely creamy head and it really lifted the beer up a notch straight away. The lacing stuck to the sides of the glass as it rolled around, as the oats from the brew had given it a silky smooth body. A cappuccino smell wafted from the glass along with milk chocolate notes. The first was very buttery, with big hits of milk chocolate, cappuccino and hints of raisins in the back-end. It was oily on the palate and left a bitter cocoa powder aftertaste. The delicious bitter alcoholic warmth seeped into the throat to round off the experience.
I thought this was a really well made stout. It ticked all the boxes for me: great texture, delicious from aroma to taste and then coupled with one of the best pouring heads I’ve seen. I believe this was a limited edition and I’m quite disappointed I didn’t buy more. A very worthy inclusion to the night!