Rogue Double Chocolate Stout

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Imperial Stout
Newport, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle and served in NB Worthy glass: Pours almost opaque with a big creamy tan head which left excellent lace upon the glass work. The aroma is big time powdered chocolate milk! Oh... there is a bit of roast, toast, raisin, leather, tobacco, vanilla bean, coffee and very faint piney hops. The taste is more of the same, huge chocolate overtones makes any other characteristic fight for the feeble table scraps. I get a constant yeasty and earthy undertone. The good news is the finish does show off more hop bitterness and fruity tones along with a dash of coffee and molasses. The bad news is that hop character starts becoming undone and out of place has the beer warms. A good thing about the warming is that a very light Ancho Mole spicy tone is found briefly. The mouth feel is smooth and lush, slightly sticky with an light alcohol note, big astrengent hop after taste. Mostly a one trick pony is Double Chocolate Stout, they need to learn something from Brooklyn or Youngs on how to make a great Chocolate Stout. This is simply too much of extremes, too much chocolate and unbalancing hops. Very minimal existence of anything else found in between. Methinks I would have just rather had this cloying sweet, at least then it would have been a nice dessert brew.

This beer is ridiculous. It tastes like eating a moist and delicious chocolate cake. Pours jet black with brown head. Aroma of chocolate, molasses, icing, and maybe some oak. Taste is same with lots of malt and hops. Exciting on the tongue. Wow.

Comes out of the tap a dark, opaque chocolate brown with a fine-bubbled tan head. Rich, chocolaty aroma is just a little bit sweet and has a coffee undertone as well as a hint of molasses. Rich, sweet chocolate flavor makes this beer like a liquid bonbon. The flavor has smoky, coffee, toffee, hops and licorice hints as well - scrumptious! Texture is lively and quite fizzy. A must!

Bottle: Pour is Dark Brown/Black with dark beige head. Excellent retention, excellent lacing. I just had this one after the Young’s.Let’s face it, this one is just fantastic. Chocolate dominates, and it is luscious really. Big chocolate malts and hops bring up the rear but in a subtle fashion. I love the creamy feel, and it is a little hot.

Tap @ Brewforia a while back: Inky black with a small but stiff tan head. Sweet choc aroma with a yummy candy flavor and mild roasted nuts. This is liquid Tootsie Rolls. The body is thick and creamy like a warm, chocolate milkshake. Outstanding!

Tallahassee, Fl - Proof - on tap. Dark black as night pour, thin, khaki colored head. Aroma not as apparent as the bold flavor would suggest. Plenty of syrupy good chocolateness, alsmost as if a Hershey’s bar was melted in the glass. Hints of licorice in the back end. Mouthfeel is moderately thick. Very solid.

On draft at Capone’s last Saturday. Pours near black with a minimal off white head and some spotty lacing as it makes its way down the glass. Nose is abundant chocolate. I got both milk and more bitter dark chocolate along with a bit of roasted malt. Taste adds a touch of creamy sweetness alongside a tongue smack of chocolate indulgence. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy. Not too alcoholic and certainly not cloying. This sits really well and goes down easy, though I’d say that 8oz or so would be enough. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 09-28-2010

UPDATED: NOV 30, 2010 Bottle: I’m honestly having trouble finding anything wrong with this beer. This is the epitomy of chocolate stouts. Smells like a dutch chocolate factory. Sweet milk chocolate. It pours dark, black, with dark beige head. Think lacing head. Thick body. The beer is smooth with a heavy sweet milk chocolate flavour. It leaves a strong aftertaste of the sweetness behind. And definitely leaves you wanting more. If you are a lover of stouts and chocolate, this is the beer for you. Perfect.

On tap at the Blue Nile Stoutfest on 10/30/10. Darkest brown pour with a medium tan head. Milk chocolate aroma with a bit of roast. Nice and full milk chocolate flavor (with not a lot of sweetness) with a bitter, roasty finish. Exactly what you would hope for out of this beer; has the same flavor as the regular chocolate stout, just more of it and a thicker, fuller body.

A standard pour into my Lost Abbey Teku glass produces a thick, darkly brown tinged, three-finger thick head. AS the head slowly subsides it leaves some layered lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is a concentrated brown color that is almost pure black; it remains quite opaque when held up to the light, but does show a touch of dark amber hue. The beer smells amply of brandy scented chocolate liquor that has been spiked by sweet coffee liquor. It sort of reminds me of a tootsie roll and it has a solid vanilla character to it as well. If you really dig into the nose the alcohol becomes more apparent and this smells even more liquor like. There is not a whole lot going on here, but it is pretty dessert smelling.

The beer is a lot drier tasting than the aroma would have suggested and this accentuates flavors of roasted dark coffee. As my palate gets a bit used to the beer more of the dark chocolate notes start to come out. The beer has a very bitter finish to it, actually very bitter and even in an unbalanced way. A touch of present alcohol adds a hint of spiciness and heat to the finish. This definitely seems to be more of a coffee beer than a chocolate beer in the flavor. It finishes with quite a roasted character, which also accentuates the bitter chocolate and hop notes. A hint of chocolate richness comes out as the beer warms up and the texture of this is actually fairly lush without being overly thick; the beer definitely clings to the palate a bit with a viscous feeling to it. Much of this viscousness is wiped clean by the huge bitterness in the finish.

I can’t believe I am saying this, but this beer could use a bit more sweetness to it as it is a bit unbalanced without the sweetness. Interestingly enough if they hadn’t so over bittered this beer it actually has enough residual sweetness to carry the chocolate, it is just that the huge bitterness completely dominates the sweetness such that it isn’t very noticeable. Not bad, but could certainly use some recipe development.