Southern Tier Choklat

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.

Black in colour with a rich tan coloured head, good retention and lacing. The aroma has lots of sweet Galaxy chocolate, malty, creamy with some white sugar. The flavour again has chocolate as the main focus but more dark chocolate this time, quite sweet, lots of roasted and burnt malts, moderately bitter. Sweet mouthfeel, medium body, medium carbonation. Finishes long with a chocolate sweetness.

Sometimes chocolate focused beers can be too sweet but this manages to balance some bitterness as well. Quite enjoyable.

650ml bottle from IPFreely, thanks Tim.
Opened on February 10, 2008.
No date.

Bottle.

All about the chocolate syrup, Hershey’s style. Massive chocolate syrup aroma, sweet chocolate syrup flavor with only a modest bit of hop bitterness to close out. It’s pretty much a chocolate cordial type drink, and not something I’d drink a lot of straight. As an impy stout, this is a joke, and in fact I’d probably pan it --- but I will say that with a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream it made the best beer float that I’ve ever had, absolutely no contest. And that’s gotta be worth something serious. I’m bumping this one way up based on how good it was in my float. Flavor in the float was an easy eight.

Bottle at Chris_O’s 19th April 2008 tasting. Pours black with a line of tan head. On opening, it smells just like Cadbury drinking chocolate, but in the mouth, the chocolate flavour is nearer to Hersheys. Very syrupy and smooth. A delightful chocolate beer.