10 Barrel Brewing Co. recently released the newest beer in its specialty tinyHaus series, Sugar High, a pastry stout infused with coconut and toasted almonds. The tinyHaus beers are creative, small batch brews created on the company’s innovation pilot brewery and released in limited quantities. The beers span a range of styles and are brewed in 20-barrel batches, with typically half being canned.

Sugar High, the 10th beer in the series, was brewed by R&D Brewmaster Tonya Cornett, who has been dabbling in pastry stouts for several years. For those unfamiliar with the term “pastry” stout, “it is a style of beer that is intentionally sweet, typically higher in alcohol and can have added ingredients to emulate a dessert,” she said via email. “These beers are very rich and tend to be over the top. It only takes a few sips to satisfy a sweet tooth.”

This one is an imperial strength example of the category, with 11% alcohol by volume. It started as an imperial chocolate stout, according to Cornett, and had a small portion of bourbon barrel aged imperial stout blended in. Lactose, or milk sugar, was added to boost the body and add some additional sweetness.

Considering the inclusion of coconut and almonds, I asked about the inspiration behind the recipe. “I have tasted a few examples with coconut that I thought worked well,” Cornett said. “I wanted to add additional depth by adding toasted almonds. The goal was to challenge myself to see how close I could actually get to the flavor of an Almond Joy.”

Almond Joy is a candy bar consisting of shredded sweetened coconut that is topped with whole almonds and covered in milk chocolate.

Cornett provided me with cans of Sugar High to review, and I found it to be as sumptuous as it sounds.

It’s syrupy, black and opaque in the glass, and the first impression of the aroma is indeed of an Almond Joy candy bar, with decadent and deeply rich notes of coconut, dark chocolate, and almonds. The other description that comes to mind is German chocolate cake. Coconut is the defining aromatic character layered over the other elements.

As you’d expect, the flavor matches the aroma, and it’s thick, sweet, cloying, rich, chocolatey, and candy-like. I imagine if you take Almond Joy and combine it in a blender with German chocolate cake, chocolate syrup, coconut cream and a hefty shot of almond liqueur, this beer would be the result. It’s a full-bodied dessert on its own.

It’s the addition of the coconut and almonds that take this beer over the top, a quantity that Cornett calls “an obscene amount.” She noted, “This is likely the most expensive beer I have created.”

Even though Sugar High wasn’t brewed specifically as a holiday ale, I think this would be a terrific addition to your holiday dessert lineup. It works as a standalone treat, but if you’d like to pair it with something extra, “a more savory dessert like cheesecake will help balance the sweetness and highlight the coconut and almonds,” Cornett said.

It’s definitely a beer to satisfy a sweet tooth, and it exemplifies the concept of pastry stout. It’s currently available in cans and should be available on tap as well.

Friar’s Festivus — Monkless Belgian Ales 

All Hail Pumpkin Ale — Spider City Brewing 

Frenzgiving Hazy IPA — Bale Breaker Brewing 

Schwarzbier — Van Henion Brewing 

Chocolate Stout — Double Mountain Brewery