Southern Tier Choklat

Beer pours dark as night with some moderate head and lacing. Let’s get down to it...this is liquified milk chocolate. No lactic notes of some other "milk" like chocolate beers, no bitter baking chocolate. This is like taking a handful of Hershey Kisses, melting them down, chilling them and adding a roasted malt stout underneath (with some noticeable hops, but not much). They totally accomplished what they were out to do. Not overly sweet, but still difficult to drink...not that that isn’t understandable. How many liquified Hershey Kisses could you think you could drink without it being a little too much? The temptation struck more than once to drink this bomber by myself...I’m glad I waited until I had my father to share with.

22 oz. bottle. Liquid bitter-sweet chocolate is the best way to describe this beer. It smells like rich, dark chocolate and tastes like it. Pitch black pour with a fizzy, tan, diminishing head. The aroma is sweet with a combination of dark chocolate, chocolate syrup, milk chocolate powder and fresh, gooey brownie with melted chocolate chips on top. Just a hint of roasted malts. The flavor is heavily sweet and lightly to moderately bitter. The finish is syrupy sweet with a bitter backbone. Full body, sticky texture. Minimal to average carbonation. Certainly an over-the-top beer. A little bit goes a long way and if you’re not a fan of extra sweet chocolate, forget it.

Courtesy of Gilliard. The fragrance of chocolate, good chocolate made with love and ingredients that do not come cheap, waft from the glass before I can bring it fully beneath my nose. The concentration of chocolate is such that the beer is a one trick pony in the aroma department. Chocolate, chocolate, maybe some chocolate cake, fudge, chocolate and chocolate mousse. To round out the cavalcade of varying flavors I also get hints of chocolate liqueur. Yes the aroma is limited, but there are shades to that one aroma and the intensity and quality are such that you can’t help but sit and repeatedly sniff at it, while being grateful that aroma doesn’t disappear as quickly as ounces do. The body of this alcoholic chocolate bar is full black and it lofts above it a mocha colored, thumb thick head that is mostly lasting, if somewhat bubbly. The aroma sets the stage for the flavors that are comprised almost wholly of variations on chocolate including cake, mousse, cocoa, fudge and chocolate liqueur, but in the flavor component, we also get a pleasant bitter flavor that seems to be a combination of alcohol and hops. Toward the finish, the sweetness takes on notes of vanilla, whipped cream and white cake. This beer is sweet and has the consistency of chocolate syrup, diluted in a glass of cocoa. It is obviously meant to be dessert treat and it fills that roll beautifully. There are not many 11% alcohol beers one could serve to mixed company if hoping to achieve positive result; this is one of those rare beers that most anyone could enjoy. Anyone except possibly a beer snob whose false sophistication precludes her from appreciating the simple tastiness of one flavor note, played to perfection.

This is indeed a dessert beer. It’s a bit hard to call it beer, the appearance is more like beer than any other aspect of this beverage. But compared to Rogue Chocolate Stout, this clearly takes the prize as far as going in the chocolate direction!

22oz bottle: Reading a few reviews of this beer over the past few months I was happy to find a few bottle available in of all places Roscommon, MI. I also knew that chocolate was the name of the game in this beer, but really, I had no idea.

Pours oil can black with a thin mocha heads that rings around the neck. My first whiff is tantilizing - Tootsie Rolls in a glass. Seriously - Hershey syrup, hot fudge, brownie batter. It’s all here in a pure, sugary goodness. Softer notes of roasted beans and carmalized sugars add a subtle complexity to the chocolate bomb. The body is just as sweet - lots of chocolate syrup sweetness followed by lighter notes of toffee and citrusy hops to balance. If there ever was a dessert beer, this is it. Complex too - this is the most interesting imperial stout I have tasted in a loooong time. Bravo to Southern Tier for emerging as a king of all things imperial.