Darkest Hour is pure nightmare fuel for your palate. I get it, every brewery is de facto required to not only have a stout, but a bourbon barrel aged stout at that. Not everyone is gonna hit the industry benchmarks that are becoming increasingly demanding in this segment. That being said this would have been cringeworthy even in the days of Silvia Stout and Kate the Great. The beer opens with a panning shot of excessive carb and a v60 chenex bloom of charcoal briquettes and fusel eyelid twitching. So far so good. To be fair there is some candied walnut and dark chocolate, but they are way way in the back ensemble. The taste is when the sewage switch is entirely flipped and the bitter Copenhagen gates are opened. Marathon spit coupled with black and milds, mechanical pencil lead, cloying roast like when you leave bagel bites in too long. Then there’s this weird sweetness like from Mexican pasteles made by Bimbo where it is simply too sweet for my prediabetic palate. 

If there exists a chocolate flavored hookah tobacco, then here it is. I made it 6 oz in to this and I feel like I deserve a platinum participation trophy for making it past the tutorial. This is the SD padres win record in liquid form, even die hard fans can’t not be disappointed.