Southern Tier Mokah

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

Southern Tier’s Imperial Mokah is the “chocolate beer” that I never thought I would have. It is one whambamshabam of chocolate flavors, assaulting all the senses, and the face, and drowns the user in a rushing tide of cocoa and chocolate. The Imperial Mokah will fill your lungs with chocolate flavors, then erupt through the top of your skull, raining violent droplets of cocoa flavor down on everyone around you. Even pre-pour, a goliath of a scent crashes into my nose, cleanly cutting through the air with its heavy alcohol, and following that with crystal clear, shining explosions of very, very dark chocolate and espresso. I even catch the slightest hint of mint, who is not drowning in this chocolate milieu, but clearly enjoying its role in the backseat. The Imperial Mokah, in fact, smells like a chocolate shop, the walls practically oozing with chocolates of all intensities and flavors. Bottle that sensation, and there you have the Mokah’s scent. Now, sometimes beers like this with intense aromas fail to deliver that same intensity in the flavor. But the Imperial Mokah has not let me down, preferring to continue its assault on my senses to my palate. Huge, rich, bold and sweeping flavors exterminate any vestiges of dinner after-tastes, replacing it with something akin to chocolate syrup. This is, undoubtedly, the most chocolatey beer I have ever had. What’s even more strange is that many beers like this (chocolate, that is) often add a heavy dose of coffee flavors, but those are totally absent. In fact, the chocolate is so dominant I’m somewhat hesitant to call this a beer, in the same way that a fruit beer is a beer to my conventional imagination. But whatever this...this divine elixir is, it’s a most wonderful juice for avid chocophiles the world over.

Small sample from a bomber at a tasting at Bishops Arms, Göteborg, Sweden. Black with a red edge and medium beige head. Nice mix of dark milk chocolate and coffee, with some tar and liquorice. Full bodied and smooth. Well balanced.

Maybe I just shouldn’t be rating this beer - it’s too much for me. Already when I opened it, I felt nausious. I sincerely hate its sweet aroma, being not-chokolate and not-coffee. The flavor confirmed my suspicions, and, eventually (and I’m sorry and everything, but:) I had to waste half of it.

Bottle @ HjHansen, Odense. Pours black with a creamy brown head and lacings. Nose and taste is roasted coffee and cocoa powder. Quite a lot of cold coffee and chocolate pudding. A bit sweet, cloying artificial and one dimensional.

Appearance: Pours a midnight brown with a 1/8 inch stripe of khaki froth. Aroma: Jell-o chocolate pudding. Taste: Chocolate pudding, malt balls, burnt malts. Finishes with spicy hops. Mouthfeel: Silky. Overall: A fantastically enjoyable chocolate treat of a beer.

Dark pour with smallish head. Large chocolatey aroma. This was the bitter dark chocolate version of the (milk) Choklat. I liked this one quite a bit better. I was disappointed that there weren’t more coffee notes in it, but still pretty good. A must try if you liked Choklat and prefer darker chocolate flavors.

@Freaktoberfest, pours dark brown with a chocolate color head, aroma of chocolate, nuts, carob and scotch, flavors of instant coffee, chocolate, alcohol can be sense, finish is rather bitter. Nice complexity.

A dark black beer with no head. The aroma is like a fine dark chocolate. The taste is a very chocolatey dessert beer with a lot of alcohol. A CHOCOLATE CANDY BAR BEER. This beer is meant to be drank in 6- 10oz. servings & that is it. One person drinking a bomber by themselves is not a good idea as the chocolate syrup taste really starts to get to you. If I just had a small glass of it it would get a higher rating. But this is too much for one person per bomber.