Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager

Brewed by Miller Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Date: 12/22/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party

hazy brown, wispy beige head, streaks of drippy lace, huge sweet chocolate candy aroma with a light spicyness, body is a bit thin, rich chocolate flavor, enough sweetness to enrichen the chocolate, light spicyness for balance,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **+/4

(Bottle, 2006 vintage) Pours a cola brown body with a small beige head. Aroma of cocoa and toasted marshmallow. Flavor of chocolate, toasted malt, and vinous. Tasty beer.

Bottle - 2006… Clear, very dark lager that is impenetrable to even the Florida sun. Small, creamy, khaki head with fantastic retention. Nice chocolaty aroma, very reminiscent to Southern Tier’s Choklat - I like it. Full-bodied and creamy with barbed carbonation. The flavor is very chocolaty and a little too sweet for my palate – almost cloying - and I have a big-time sweet tooth. The finish is also sweet and chocolaty. Age might have something to do with the complete lack of balance, but either way, this is pretty darned great for a Miller product. Major thanks to Skyview for providing the bottle!

Pours a clear dark amber mahogany with a thin covering of tannish head. Aroma of sweet candied vanilla and milk chocolate with a hint of roasted malts. Body starts with some thin sugary caramel chocolate vanilla sweetness turning into a blander bittersweet finish. The chocolate flavor seems too artificial or maybe it’s just too chocolatey for my tastes. Otherwise, it’s an interesting brew and it’s surprising that Miller brews it.

I was genuinely and pleasantly surprized by this SABMiller beer. It pours a deep mahogany body with a creamy tan head. The aroma reminds me of Nestles’ powdered chocolate milk mix, what we had at home as kids since Hershey’s Syrup cost a lot more. It’s very thick and leaves a light powdery feeling on the tongue - - or mayhaps I’m still reminiscing about the Nestles. Nice cocoa flavor. Almost - repeat, Almost makes me wish I’d picked up more than one bottle.

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Now in bottles, They taut this as the 2005 GABF Gold Medal winner - 2006 Edition. Assuming the Celebration Bock, which won under the spice/herb beer category. I’ve actually had this on tap several times before at various tastings and find this one to be quite similar to the previous offerings. Dark brown color with a taller light tan head. Chocolate liqueurs strike the nasal passages, with hints of vanilla and mild coffee and malt-o-meal. A touch stronger in scent than chocolate malt-o-meal, perhaps a childhood favorite mixed with Kahlua. I like it, if for no other reason than that. Flavors are a touch tamer than the aromas, which is welcome. A light sweet wheat and pale malt sweetness start the flavors. A Dark chocolate middle, with a touch of acidity as found in Sharfen-Berger extra dark chocolate. Touch of raspberries and coffee toward the finish. Linger settles in with roasted coffee, dry malt and a touch of floral hops. Certainly better than most chocolate brews out there. If anything, a touch too sweet at times.

Thanks to Buckybeer for this one. Pours hazy brownish black with some turbid ruby hints through direct light. The aroma is lovely dark chocolate, ovaltine, Nestle quik. The palate is medium, with a chalky, very chocolatey syrupy flavor. Indeed, this one is very chocolate milky with some figgy fruit as it warms. Stays sweet, with a constant heavy dark chocolate flavor that is very tasty. Wow, I’m going to buy a case of this if I see it, because it will go great with a CAO Maduro cigar!

12 ounce bottle from the Woodmans on Gammon Road, Madison WI (December 2006) consumed a little above fridge temperature from an Allagash glass. Pours clear but very dark caramel-maple with a moderate but quick-decaying off-white creamy head, just a hint of lacing....cocoa powder/Ovaltine aroma mixed with kirsch liqueur is actually quite entrancing and potent though hardly beerlike; still the richness and decadence overwhelms thoughts of style-correctness or anything else to me and I define any fruit or candy-lover to hate this nose, Miller or no....the body follows quite naturally from the nose, lots of sweetness and thankfully a bit more grain-malt character, cherry liquor again adding nicely to the predominant cocoa, faint tartness....lightly syrupy mouthfeel at first combines well with strong carbonation, but quickly becomes cardboardy and dull towards the finish, where a more artificial metallic note almost ruins the pleasant experience. Apart from those end-palate notes (and they get less pronounced as it warms) this is amazingly good considering the source, and I echo most of the other positive comments, though I’d still hope the big guys could do even better if they wanted to.