Alvarado Street Brewery’s coffee milk stout gives you a reason to wake up.

Maybe the question of starting the day with coffee or a cold one hasn’t come up since college. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, you are teetering between options late on a Saturday morning. Alvarado Street Brewery’s J.C. Hill has you covered, either way.

The Best Part of Waking up is a coffee milk stout, brewed with liquid cacao, vanilla beans and a helping of light roast from Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Co. The combination offers warming notions of caramel and toast, lolling casually behind the familiar savor of percolated coffee.

Although brooding in appearance, it is a velvety beer with bitterness tempered, alcoholic bite limited to 5.5 percent and the mouthfeel calmed by nitrogen. The effect is positive, creating a creamier beer without adding heft

It is something balanced and nuanced, but hardly bland.

ALVARADO STREET BREWERY 426 Alvarado St., Monterey. 655-2337, alvaradostreetbrewery.com.