Introducing Contestants – Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

It’s been a busy week at the beer tournament, but I’m determined to get intros up here of every beer and every brewery that I’ve heard back from.  Incidentally, if you ever take the time to call or email people at craft breweries, they tend to be overwhelmingly happy to get back to you and help you out.  People in the business of beer tend to be cool.


Anyhow, back to the Stout at hand, or in my case, in hand.  Brooklyn Brewery is a craft brewery located in – wait for it – Brooklyn, NY.  They have a pretty wide variety of beers, and you’ve probably noticed quite a few of them if you go into any decent beer store.  The easiest ones to spot are the giant numbered ones Local 1 and Local 2.  They  have a ton of others, including (naturally) the Black Chocolate Stout.


This is the first one I’ve reviewed where the taste is indisputably chocolate-infused; the label doesn’t lie, and they do it well with the natural malts of a stout.  BBCS checks  in at a hefty 10% ABV, which fits the style just fine.  Chocolate and a hint of alcohol dominate the nose. The mouthfeel on this one is a tiny bit stingy and bubbly, which is a stark contrast to some of the other contestants in the tournament.  I prefer something a little more smooth, but I’m curious to see how that influences things come tournament time.  I’m not the only judge, and I’ve never polled the others about their preferences. 


 
(Thanks to Ben H. and the good folks at Brooklyn Brewery for the pic!)


The beer pours a nice dark black with a brown head, both fine colors for the style.  I thought this was a defining characteristic of the style until the other day at a restaurant.  I ordered a Lone Rider Stout (a local brewery) and at first thought they had gotten my order wrong.  When it came back, I was shocked to find that I could see through the beer.  It looked more like a dark lager.  It ended up tasting pretty nice and fit the stout mold, but I just couldn’t get over the color.  The aftertaste is slightly bitter and chocolaty, but overall quite pleasant. 


I’m a big fan of this beer.  As far as predictions for the event -  I really have no idea how far this will go.  It’s got a tough matchup with a much pricier beer in round 1, Southern Tier Choklat (for now – recall that there may be some switching before May Day), but part of the reason for this tourney was to see if the higher prices on some of these beers are truly merited. It’s a tough call, but I could see it pulling off the upset, which would bring it head to head with (I have to believe) Ten FIDY, which is going to be a tough out.  This beer is fully capable of shocking the tournament, despite being seeded 15th (seeding is done entirely by price).  


That’s one reason I’m a huge fan of this – I can honestly say it’s in the same league as the best in this tourney while being almost half the PPOz of some.  I’m very curious as to where BBCS ends up.  In my “personal seeding,” where I did this by personal preference rather than price, this would probably be sitting pretty in the top five or six.  I’ve made no secret of my love for FIDY, Breakfast Stout, and Allagash Black, but this beer belongs in that class, along with BORIS the Crusher, Southern Tier Choklat, and a few others that I’ll get to in later posts. I don’t mean to universally heap props at the beers in the tourney, but in fairness part of the reason for many of the selections was that I knew them to be good.


Some of the contestants were added by trusted recommendation, BTW, so don’t necessarily take my lack of endorsement as a thumbs down.  For instance, I’ve never tasted our current #1 seed, Schafly Reserve.  The good people at The Perfect Pour in Elkridge, MD (the best beer store I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some damn good ones – the Foodery in Philadelphia is a close second) recommended that one, along with the Sam Smiths.  Sam Adams and Guinness were added purposefully to be the underdogs (and because I’ve had both of them and they are indeed respectable).  This wouldn’t be much of a does-price-matter experiment if we didn’t throw in the most readily available examples of the style.  I have some judges coming in that believe it impossible for a beer to be better than Guinness.  And no, they… okay… he isn’t Irish. 


Anyhow, I’ve managed to go way off track in this post.  The point is, welcome to Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and best of luck.  It’s good, it’s chocolaty, and it has what it takes to make it deep in the tourney.  We’ll see how it all ends up!