Black Chocolate Stout

This is the first beer anyone totally geeked out on me over. It was a fellow faculty member at a middle school I was teaching at a decade ago, and he was positively giddy over finding Black Chocolate Stout in stores again (it's generally only available October through March).

Being an impressionable young lad, I went out and purchased a four-pack, and was impressed immediately by the full on flavor of flavor. See, up until then, I had been in college, and had been exposed only to the very finest light and chuggable "getcha drunk" lagers that New Jersey could offer. By contrast, the Black Chocolate Stout is a sipping beer.

My camera sucks. In actuality, this beer devours light.

First off, it pours an absolute ink black: a quality not well-captured by the camera on my iPhone, nor by the light-colored things that are reflected in the glass. I mean it - I got the sense I could write on parchment with this beer. In previous pours, I have also managed to cultivate a nice creamy head (with a color not unlike that of the head of a Guinness, but much more flavorful). Somehow, that wasn't happening for me today.

I smelled a lot of cherry and roasted coffee in this beer. Unlike many of the beers I've had of late, both of those aromas were present in the flavor beer too. But wait, as they say, there's more. I ended up getting that namesake bitter chocolate, also some lovely toasted bread and a lot of caramel. This is a beer with a flavor that lasts.

At 10% above, it's not a multiple-bottle kind of a beer (at least, not for me), and there's a considerable alcohol presence as well. I do find that as it warms up (inevitable, given how long this beer kind of insists I wait in between sips), some nice vanilla flavors peek out as well, and the heat in the alcohol makes a winter evening a little bit warmer.

Departures

Last Wednesday was my last day at work. I've been working at a really fun firm in Boston for a couple months, and have truly enjoyed learning from them. I was hired over beers, and I departed over beers. And had more than a few drinks with the attorneys after hours, so really, not bad. I'm moving to New Jersey, to take a job in Newark, so this blog will certainly stay bicoastal. That is, if Mr. West Coast gets off his ass. Punk.

The founding partner of the firm is from Vermont, so I picked a Vermont beer on our first outing: Magic Hat #9. It's pretty widely available, and I recommend it. Their own marketing doesn't really help, as they describe it in really stupid terms. Nonetheless, the beer is tasty, with a pretty refreshing bitterness that's balanced nicely with a sweetness that's neither sugary nor malty. It takes a couple of sips to identify, but that's the flavor of apricot, and while I've had bad experiences lately with fruit beers (hello, Sam Adams Blackberry Wibier), #9 has been a perennial choice. Perhaps not a favorite, but not a bad one either.

I should mention that one day, when our computers were down for 30 minutes, my boss invited us to grab a beer and put our feet up. There was a Brooklyn Lager, a Bud Light, and an Anchor Steam. Boss took the Bud Light. So while yes, the bosses like beer, I think that one still drinks like a fratboy. I had the Brooklyn Lager. Delicious as always.

On the last day of work, we had our traditional Monday Morning Meeting (at 5 pm on Wednesday, natch), and we got two sixers. Brooklyn Winter Ale and Dogfish Head 60-minute IPA. The Brooklyn Winter Ale was nice and warm, with a smooth drinkability that was most welcome after a long day's work. It wasn't harsh or spicy at all, just really smooth malts and a deep caramel. As for hops, I know a lot of people tasted some hops, but I didn't. This one was just really nice and smooth.

This Brooklyn Winter was consumed at my girlfriend's house, but it's the same beer.

The 60-minute IPA was delicious too. I've tried Dogfish's 90-minute (amazing) and their 120-minute (far too sweet and weird), so I was excited to get to try the 60. It's hoppy, alright, and for my taste, this is pretty much like eating a pine cone. Basically, this is to Bud Light what the modern gins are to vodka: bright, aggressive, and unabashedly unbalanced. It's not a bad beer, and it was drinkable when ice-cold. As it warmed up, the bitterness really took over, and it got kind of undrinkable.

And then, out at the bar (and after a well-made martini with three olives), I had a nice Shipyard Prelude. I really liked this one. I was a little surprised to find it a little stronger than expected (6.8% ABV), since it didn't feel so on the tongue. It oddly tasted a bit like butterscotch (basic winter-beer caramel flavors plus maybe some unctuous fattier notes layered on top), but I also tasted some banana and raisin as well. It wasn't heavy or cloying, was refreshing without being dry, and was a great last beer to have with friends before heading out into the cold.

Magic Hat Winter Howl - nevermind the fact it's in a Harpoon glass.

Oh wait, we're having dinner? At another bar? Um, OK. Actually, we returned to the same bar (and indeed, the same table) I was at when I was hired. I'm a pretty sentimental person, so I ordered another Magic Hat, this time, the Winter Howl. It was really nice, and not nearly as heavy as might be expected from a beer that color. That said, I got lots of coffee, some dark chocolate, and maybe raisin from each sip. Too bad my steak and ale pie was so watery - the beer was delicious.

What Can Brown Do For You?

Like my West Coast colleague, I found it hard to deny that Autumn is really here. The mercury is falling, students are once again crawling over Boston, and my fantasy football team is screwed after week 1 (seriously? Losing by 2.5 points? I hate you Tony Gonzalez). It's definitely autumn again.

Oktoberfests are generally darkish lagers, but being an Ale-man myself, I went with the Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown. It seems that Mr. West Coast is nosing in on the East Coast with a review of Dogfish Head. Right back atcha, buddy.

So yeah, this Tumbler Autumn Brown. I'm generally a Sierra Nevada fan. I like their Pale Ale. I like their Porter. I've even enjoyed their Celebration ales. And this one held such promise. It poured a nice and dark chestnut, with a deep and very long-lasting head. Oddly, there wasn't much of an aroma, but initial sips brought out some really deep roasted malt flavor. It was almost salty on the tongue, with smooth sipping and unobtrusive carbonation.

You can already see the aggressive carbonation. Honestly, I tend to pour violently in order to get a nice thick head (which tends to release a lot of beautiful aroma), so I figured I'd gotten it all out of the beer. How wrong I was...

At least, I thought it was unobtrusive. Turns out, the bubbles, for some reason, don't fully effervesce out of the beverage until it is safely locked inside one's stomach. This leads to tremendous discomfort as one inflates from the inside. Like a time-release capsule, or the beer equivalent of a double-action baking powder. One release of, well, gas in the beginning; then a second release when it's a little less welcome.

So yes. Delicious, but it made my tummy hurt. I think this is probably better on tap: that way, the carbonation gets out of the way early and harmlessly.

I also tried the Brooklyn Oktoberfest, and I'm sad to say it's not fabulous. It's nice and sort of chewy at first, with a really nice depth of toasty amber flavor. And then halfway down the pint, when it starts to warm up, citrus and bitter notes push to the fore, which are also quite welcome. Unfortunately, toward the end, the alcohol harshness took over and it got tremendously sour and unpleasant. So there you have it - 3 beers in one, two of which are pretty good, and one that sucks.

I'll be taking the suggestion in the last post and trying some of the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale soon. Fingers crossed...