Brewed By: Great Divide Brewing
Brewed In: Denver, CO
Type: Imperial Stout aged on Oak Chips with Cocoa Nibs and Spice Added
ABV: 9.5%

What they say: “Welcome to the newest incarnation of our revered imperial stout. We toned down the hops a bit to allow cocoa nibs to contribute some pleasing bitterness, while vanilla notes from the oak combine with the cocoa to create an aroma and flavor akin to a gourmet chocolate bar. A dash of cayenne keeps things lively, adding just a bit of heat to the finish. A Yeti for summer? Hell yes. Enjoy with raw oysters, grilled NY strip, chicken mole, Roaring 40’s blue cheese, crème bruleé, chocolate raspberry mousse cake.”

Website: Covered in the previous review. Flash-heavy, not too detailed, but serviceable.

Why this one, Show? This is the second and final entry in my ongoing series entitled “BigShow vs. the Two Aged Yetis That Made It To The Back Of The Cellar Two Years Ago.” I’ve got two more series lined up that I want to review, but I’m going to complete this one first, dang it.

First Thoughts:
Head: Fairly thick, mocha-latte-colored
Nose: Bittersweet chocolate, coffee
Color: Jet black

Presentation (5): As previously said, Great Divide’s labels are pretty detailed. The label is a nice shade of silver/gray, and includes the requisite Yeti. It pours out thick, but looks like pretty much any other stout in the glass. 5

Originality (5): It’s a wooded chocolate stout. Great Divide’s site doesn’t really have any time-line for when this beer was created, although their Yeti and Oak-Aged Yeti won awards in 2005 and 2007, respectively. I’ll award some points for not just throwing the beer into a bourbon barrel, instead choosing to use oak chips to keep the wood flavors in the subtle range, and for using real cocoa in the mix. 4

Body (10): There’s not too much carbonation in the sip but this is still a mouth-filling beer. There’s almost no hoppy, crackly notes on the tongue, but the malts and chocolate flavors still make this one heavy sip. 7

Taste (10): Like smooth, silky, fancy chocolate. Big chocolate malt notes with a sweet, almost-syrupy cocoa middle, followed by faint bitterness at the back of the sip. The layers of flavor just about mirror the layers of the Espresso Yeti, just swapping the coffee flavors for the chocolate flavors. Very intense, but very good. 10

Efficiency (10): High marks for high ABV and being easy to drink. The sweet flavors are nicely balanced by the earthy finish and that makes a bomber bottle disappear quickly. 9

Versatility (10): Not too much. The sweetness pretty much slots this beer into dessert-pairing territory (I don’t know how I’d feel drinking this with savory foods, with the exception of chicken mole). While that may offer some good variety, it’s not something to make a night out of. Good for a beer float, and that certainly counts for something. 4

Final Score: 39 – Really Good Beer

What they say: When empirical and creative impulses collide, the result is often timeless. The classic utility-art aesthetic of the coffee maker is an example of design and engineering working in concert.

It is through similar cooperation that the simple bitter cocoa bean is transformed into a sweet treat. As scientists, our brewers utilize their materials to exacting standards. As artists, they couldn’t resist the temptation to combine two of our highly acclaimed Blackwater Series Imperial Stouts: Jahva and Choklat. Alone each is perfect, but together as Mokah they are an inimitable expression of two of the world’s most sought after flavors. Enjoy Mokah stout with—or as—your favorite dessert!

Website: After the yes/no “of age” graphic, the page opens to their news and announcements (nice). There are links at the top for beers, tour, onsite bar, etc. The beer list is one big page, with links that skip you down the page to the different headings. The categories list things like year-round, seasonal, etc, covering all offerings (even the one available only at the brewery). Well done.

Why This One, Show?: Southern Tier can always be counted on to make a quality beer. In doing some research on their new 422 Pale Wheat Ale, I saw that they had blended the sublime Choklat with the haven’t-had-a-chance-to-try-it-by-itself-yet Jah*Va. I saw it at one of my local brew stores, so I grabbed it.

First Thoughts:
Head: Thin, white, some good lace cling.
Nose: Unmistakably chocolate nose, not too much coffee.
Color: Jet black.

Presentation (5): Southern Tier’s bottles make a beer snob smile. The labels are chock-full of great information, graphics, and facts. The label isn’t paper, but rather a vinyl sticker that encircles the bottle. On this one is a Moka pot, the ingredients in the beer (malts, hops, flavorings), a picture of the correct glassware WITH correct serving temperature, and the full text of the “What They Say” bit above. Perfect label snobbery. 5

Originality (5): This is a beer blend (Ja*vah and Choklat), so Southern Tier gets points in this field. Made with Jamaican coffee and bittersweet Belgian chocolate. Not the first, but well above most. 4

Body (10): Nice light body for an Imperial stout. Beer spreads a bit in the mouth, and there is that distinct “stout”-feel, but I’ve certainly felt like I’ve needed to chew much lesser stouts. There is not a lot of carbonation, as I’d expect. But there are enough bubbles so as to not make it seem like you’re drinking coffee syrup. 9

Taste (10): In a word: awesome. There’s sweet chocolate right at the top of the sip, then that melds together with the coffee flavor in the middle, turning to the slightly bitter coffee right at the swallow. The chocolate is almost too sweet, so it’s thankfully balanced out by the coffee. The name Mokah is no foolin’–this tastes like a cup of fancy, expensive coffee, just iced and in beer form. 10

Efficiency (10): Southern Tier’s Imperial offerings are nothing short of the definition of efficiency. Great-tasting beers with a high enough ABV that one 22 oz. bomber is all you need to start feeling good. With practically no hop bitterness (due to the emergent coffee and chocolate flavors), you can take hearty sips of this remarkably smooth stout, and three-quarters of the way through the 10-oz. glass you’ll realize you’ve started getting tingly. 10

Versatility (10): As my esteemed colleague put it in the Oat Imperial Oatmeal Stout review, if the brewer suggests a brandy snifter as the beer’s correct glassware the versatility isn’t getting high marks. One bomber is more than sufficient; in fact, the sweetness of the beer starts to edge into “Ok, that’s enough” territory by the time you finish the bottle. 3

final score: 41 – Great Beer

Black Chocolate Stout
Brewed By: Brooklyn Brewery
Brewed In: Brooklyn, NY
Type: Chocolate Stout
ABV: 10.1%

What They Say: On website: This is our 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. (In other news, if I ever live in a house, I may have to try to age one of these for a year).

Website: While I generally hate sites that are entirely flash applications, this one is about as well as they can be done. The navigation always remains at the top and not a lot of time is wasted with silly animations. The only irritating no-no is that it makes sound and websites should not generally make sounds without warning the user.

Why I Picked It: To be perfectly honest, the first time I saw it was at an Albany bar called Cafe Hollywood and their specials board had a “try this for the same price as a regular pint” with it’s alcohol content listed. I like Brooklyn and I like high alcohol content for cheap money, so I went with it. Much later, I’d find it’s bottled form in the city.

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Presentation (5): I love the design of this bottle. I love the understated black and gold design that says you should take this bottle more seriously then the flippant colors and big B logo on other Brooklyn products. I love that the logo is smaller and put off in the corner allowing the name of the beer to be the featured player. I love that the label’s design is different than the standard Brooklyn label to set it apart from the rest of the brewery’s products. They couldn’t have done this better. 5

Originality (5): For me, most chocolate stouts taste the same. They seem to focus much more on the bitterness of the chocolate then the sweetness. Brooklyn’s is the first (and really only) chocolate stout I’ve had that tries to balance both. It’s remarkably successful. 4

Taste (10): Dangerous. It’s probably the tastiest chocolate stout I’ve ever sampled. If you’ve ever had a chocolate stout and thought about how it should taste… this is it. It’s gives you a touch of sweet and has a deliciously bitter chocolate flavor in the finish. It lingers, but not too much to be unpleasant. It’s good for any beer, great for a stout, and absolutely perfect for a chocolate stout. 10

Body (10): Taken out of context, it’s a very heavy beer. When you taste it, though, the flavor is so distinctly chocolate that you expect the body to be much heavier — almost like a Hershey’s Syrup — then it actually is. It’s heavy, but since it’s thinner than you expect, it feels pleasantly light. It’s perfect. 10

Efficiency (10): Brutally and viciously efficient. Barleywine and Imperial Stouts generally have some kind of flavor issues to slow down consumption. Brooklyn Chocolate Stout doesn’t. It doesn’t have the tongue-sitting bitterness of some Imperial Stouts nor does it have the sickly sweetness of some chocolate stouts. It’s alarmingly good, has no taste issues, only costs about $1 more than a standard six-pack, and can kill you. I honestly don’t know how New York hasn’t made it illegal (though I have noted many bars reduced the draught to 10-ounce pours). 10

Versatility (10): Yeah, right. 5.

Final Grade: 44 (of 50) – Great beer.