Southern Tier Choklat

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Lakewood, New York USA

Bottle my wife picked up for me during one of her travels. This one pours a dark chocolate brown color with shades of black and a very small, tan head of foam that settles to a thin film. The aroma is a nice blend between bitter-dark and sweet milk chocolate along with a touch of roast. It smells like a liquid hershey bar. The flavor follows with even more chocolate with varieties of bitter-dark, milk chocolate, and some dry cocoa as well. There is a touch of roast in the flavor as well along with some earthy hop bitterness on the back end. Medium-full bodied and ultra smooth with subtle carbonation that leads to a dry, bitter-chocolate finish. This definitely lives up the name of a being a chocolate stout. Great beer.

Bottle. Black colour with a pale brown head. Aroma: chocolate, roasted malt, vanilla, maybe some nuts. Flavor: Chocolate (both milk chocolate and dark), chocolate ice cream, vanilla, sweetness, coffee and roasted malt in the background, balanced by some hops, a little warming alcohol. Nice, but you probably have to love chocolate to like this beer.

Pure black color with a dark brown head. Aroma is of malts, chocolate, and cocoa powder. Taste is pretty much the same. Has a nice cocoa finish in the end. Pretty good stuff.

Very dark brown liquid. Thin brown head of foam forms, with a hard pour. Leaves a thin creamy film, not unlike the top of an espresso. Clumpy, yet thin, lacing. Rich roasted malts. Hershey’s chocolate syrup, as made by Ghiradelli’s. Hints of dark roast coffee. Slight kiss of bourbon and cherry scents, on the back end. Best chocolate smell, from a beer, ever. Decadent. Both bitter dark chocolate and sweet milk chocolate, at the same time. An odd, yet tasty, sensation. Nice kick of roasted coffee beans. Very dark roasted. Slight hint of vanilla. Cocoa powder. A bourbon-like boozy warmth. Nice mild hop kick at the end, just to let you know that you are, indeed, drinking a beer. Not chocolate milk. Full bodied, but not thick. Slick and oily. Slides down the throat very easily, yet coats the mouth, also. Extremely tasty. Too rich for everyday drinking, though. Excellent dessert beer. Perhaps the best dessert beer. Big, bold, sweet and tasty.

TOO SWEET. that completely sums up this beer WAYYY TOO SWEET. Sweet and imperial stouts are my favorite styles and this beer completely disappointed. I was very excited to try this beer. The smell was great. The appearance was terrible, almost no head, no lacing. I paid $9 for a 22oz bottle of this, don’t make the same mistake I did.

From the Bottle at RBESG Harlequin, Sheffield 19/07/2009 Big chocolate aroma. Dark red coloured and strong in alcohol with a chocolate flavour. Crisp bitter and slightly dry in the finish.

Dark brown, the liquid actually seems thinner than I had expected. A small light-beige head dissipates quite fast. Small lacings, basically just a ring of foam around the edges. A very nice but not a very complex smell. Deep and powerful smell of dark chocolate. Chocolate syrup, hazelnuts and cream. Rather sweet smell and with all that chocolate is almost reminiscent of a chocolate dessert. Chocolate flavors dominate the taste - both rich flavors of dark chocolate and some sweeter chocolaty notes. Chocolate syrup. The taste is actually quite sweet. Nice coffee flavors, roasted malts, some wood, faint salty notes. More sweet notes in the form of vanilla, cream and hazelnuts. Almost like a chocolate milkshake. The finish is more bitter than expected and has a rather prominent taste of alcohol to it. Some vanilla sugar, light hop aromas and even more chocolate. Full bodied, but it could be a little thicker if you’d ask me. Rather sticky texture. Restrained carbonation. A very good chocolate stout with a chocolate profile that would make Willy Wonka envious. But still, it has some weak points. The bitterness and the taste of alcohol in the finish is too prominent and the body could have been a little thicker. But still, a really good beer. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

Bottle. Pours a black beer with an offwhite head. The aroma is chocolate and sweetness. The flavor is chocolate with notes of alcohol. The palate is sweet. Overall a clean chocolate beer.