OMG Chocolate! Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout
Do you follow the twitter stream? If you do, you may have heard about this bottle of chocolate-y wonder. I’m not one to wax poetic about beers that claim to be brewed with chocolate, since often the flavor is so burnt beyond belief that only my sink could tell you how it really tastes.
But one evening, a dear friend of mine brought over this giant bottle, claiming in terribly misspelled letters that it was brewed with chocolate. I poured. I cringed. I braced myself. I sipped. And I said… ‘OMG Chocolate!’.
This stuff is just straight amazing. Its almost like drinking a chocolate liqueur (11% alchohol – woot!). Its still a stout mind you, with all the subtle stout thickness you would expect, but man can you taste the cocoa goodness. And it’s fantastic.
The only downside to this stuff is because it is so sweet and rich, you really can’t drink a whole one yourself. Call this a “party” drink. Fun for everyone to have a taste, but too wickedly alcoholic to drink solo. Although the potential that they attempted such a feat when trying to spell the title would certainly explain things.
I love winter time in beer land. More so than any other season, brewers seem compelled to pull out all their tricks and come up with new and fun beer concoctions. And because its so cold for most of America, they tend to be on the darker side, which of course makes Frosty a happy boy. Ninkasi’s winter brew, Sleigh’r, is no exception. Now, yes, I’ve been hard on Ninkasi in the past, but to be fair all their beer is just so damn hoppy. Imbued with all the narcissism only a guy with a beer review blog can have, I’ll go ahead and claim that they heard my cries, and have decided to make a brew truly worthy of my lofty praise. 
Either that, or they just mined the stream of awesome brewing they’ve always had. And struck gold, they have.
Naming a stout after a train can really go wrong: either by implying a certain coal-tar flavor (mmmm…burnt), or with a foreshadow to the effect the stout will have on your head after drinking. Lucky for me, neither apply to North Coast Brewing’s Old #38 Stout. Its more like a smooth ride down a track of air than the smoky clackety rumble its name implies. This stuff is good. Real good. Smooth, and “just right” flavorful, it puts to shame all the stouts that feel the need to brew themselves with some other flavor to mask the funk (Abyss excepted of course).
“Irish style”? You’re just inviting disaster by naming a beverage with alcohol in it “Irish style.” While of course they mean to refer to the excellent tradition of fine brews to come from Ireland, they’re risking providing fodder for the equally rich tradition of drunk Irish jokes. What’s the recommended serving method for “Irish Style”, cracking the bottle over some doof’s head in the pub? They should save the trouble of bottling it — just pour it straight from the bottles onto walls of buildings, about waist-high, during the St. Patrick’s day parade in New York. (I’m allowed to make these jokes, by the way, as I’m one of the 83% of Americans who claim Irish descent. Here’s my proof-of-Irish card.)
Brian is discussing. 
I wasn’t super excited about The Abyss last year. It was good, but not great. But then Doug tells me, “no you need to put it in the fridge for a year, and drink it when the new batch comes out”. I was skeptical, but now I just feel dumb that I didn’t store more than one. 
My local beer swiller has a “bargain bin”. Sometimes, I find some real gems in there. Like the 
Robin are discussing. 
If you find yourself sitting there, and you just absolutely have to have a stout…fly to San Diego and have a Black Seal from Rock Bottom. Barring that, you could also hop in the lear jet and get a fresh poured Guinness from the top floor of their Dublin brewery.
I have decided that I just have an affection for “Black” beers. Note the distinction from Porters, Browns and Stouts. Those are awesome too, but there is something special about a 
We like Chris McGowen. Why? Well apart from him being a nice guy, he’s one of the stable of local Favorite Amatuer Brewmasters that routinely supply me with tasty concoctions. His latest edition is one I affectionately call Wheat White Wit. Cause although to beer snobs there’s a distinction, when I asked Chris what he made, those three words all made it into the descriptive response. But hey, whose counting? Its free beer! Super duper cloudy (Chris spilled grain in the beer..doh!), it was a nice easy drinking wheat/white/wit beer. Perfect for a summer BBQ. If you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend taking his advice and mowing the lawn while chugging it down. There’s something about controlling a 3ooo rpm spinning blade of death and alcohol that just go together.
Jon is discussing. 
I both love stouts, and hate stouts. That is, 50% of all the stouts I’ve had taste like someone spilled ash in the fermenter. The other half however, can be be truly awesome. And as luck (or unluck) would have it, I have just had the second best stout I’ve ever had, courtesy of our favorite homebrew champ Jonathan Edwards. I say unluck, because its likely the only one I’ll ever have. Mr. Edwards brews are in high demand these days. Sigh. I suppose the memory of a super smooth, dark and malty brew will have to suffice until I can make it back to SD for the champ
Ivana Goodbeer 8:44 am on February 5, 2010 Permalink
Mmmm…. it was very yummy.