Brooklyn Brewery - Black Chocolate Stout

Brooklyn says: "This is the famous Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, our award-winning rendition of the Imperial Stout style, once made exclusively for Catherine the Great. We use three mashes to brew each batch of this beer, achieving a luscious deep dark chocolate flavor through a blend of specially roasted malts. We brew it every year for the winter season. It is delicious when newly bottled, but also ages beautifully for years."

The Black Chocolate Stout is a 10% ABV imperial stout that is brewed during the winter season. This is the 2011-2012 batch, that I received through a trade with someone in the NY area.

Appearance: Dark opaque black with a dark brown head, which in person was much darker than it appears in the picture. The head poured to almost 2 fingers in height and took awhile to recede. Not much lacing or residual head, but there is a thin foam layer that sits on top of the beer.

Smell: Rich, dark chocolate, slight bitterness, and a trace of fusel alcohol.

Taste: Chocolate forward, with traces of roasted, bitter coffee and sweet grain. A slight flavor of dark fruit is there too, but true to the name, it's mostly bittersweet chocolate.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy, medium-bodied, and a dry finish. On the lower end of the carbonation spectrum, but it's nice. It almost feels like it is on nitro out of the bottle.

Overall: Other than the heavier aroma note from the fusel alcohols, this was a well-balanced, tasty chocolate stout. The chocolate really did shine, and elements like roasted grains and slight balancing hop bitterness didn't overtake the chocolate notes and aromas at all, which is what should be expected from a stout that emphasizes its chocolate character. This is overall a beer I would seek out again, but not a very complex stout as it was very chocolate heavy.

3.5/5