Fort Collins Chocolate Stout

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: Stout
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

12 oz. bottle. Simplistic aroma features roasted coffee beans, a touch of tar, and some hops. Pours a near black dark brown with a dark amber hue and a small amount of short-lasting tan head. Produces some lacing. The flavor begins sharp, lemony, and bitter. I expected a chocolate sweetness implied in the name to emerge thereafter, but the flavor fails to progress to such a state. Surprisingly light, slightly bitter aftertaste. Medium body. Soft in the palate. Low in carbonation. Easy to drink. Fort Collins Chocolate Stout isn’t a bad beer; it simply isn’t very good.

A pretty good chocolate stout. Not very high in alcohol (as many beers of this style). Dark, rich color and malty chocolate flavor.

Sample thanks to Cornfield: Bid rich and roasty aroma drifting from the intensely black pour. The flavors were roasted barley, chocolate, cocoa, espresso, and burnt brown sugar. The palate was just a touch too thin, but not distractingly so. The hop bitterness shows up mainly in the finish...quite strong but not oppresive. Very well made beer.

Poured a near pitch black with no head to speak of. Smell is rather un-appealing. Some scent of hops and some kind of bad lactose. Taste is pretty much the same, but the hops are more prominent. I think the biggest problem is the flavors don’t meld very well together. They’re both in your face and fighting one another instead of blending together and complimenting one another. It’s very thin and watery for a stout. Good thing it is, because I’m going to make short work of this thing just to get it over with.

Bottle courtesy Shag/Clash. Poured a nice dark brown color, almost black, good initial head and lacing. The aroma was chocolate and lacto notes. The flavor was rich chocolate with some lactic notes, a lightly roasted bitter aspect at the end of each sip, certainly not bitter, though, and obviously not hoppy. Mouthfeel was slick and oily, a nice finish with each sip. Thanks, Matt, a nice one!

I had this for with dinner on a lovely May evening in Minnesota. It hit all the expected spots, not brilliantly but nicely. Deep black, moderate lacing. Roasted and rather rich aroma and front, tame middle, some suggestions of roasted malt but not deep in the sense of chocolate. Moderate finish, not especially hoppy (which is good in my stouts). Average bottled palate. Good, solid drinker.

This pours a very dark mahogany body with a creamy, light cocoa head. Good lacing. The aroma is chocolatey with a fair amount of roasted malt. Medium-bodied, it tastes of bittersweet chocolate, roasted malt with a bit of barley, and a light touch of weak coffee. Some hop bitterness is detectable near the finish, balancing the ale out nicely. Pretty decent.

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bottle. Pours dark brown with little head. Aroma of roasted malt and chocolate. Taste is weak, watery with a little bit of bitter chocolate. Not much else.