Paid Time Off started as a side project, an experiment. We wanted to see if we could take an imperial stout and add toasted coconut and cocoa nibs without overwhelming the palate with sticky sweetness.

Our inspiration? Candy bars. Coconut, chocolate, and roasted nuts; that perfect balance of sweet and dry. It’s a commonly held brewing belief that you can’t brew with walnuts. Too tough, too oily, notoriously difficult to extract flavor from. But we didn’t let that stop us. We found a producer willing to dry roast their nuts without any oil or salt so that we could extract that roasted goodness from the outside, not worry about the inside, and achieve a wholly unique and pleasantly dry, nutty flavor. It pulls the beer’s overall sweetness back and complements the chocolate and toasted coconut perfectly.