Beer – #456 – Rogue – Chocolate Stout

I was called out on not having had the Rogue Chocolate Stout, or to be exact the Double Stout version, which I do have in the fridge and was hoping would make it to the 500 mark. I decided though to test the water first with the tame version.

HISTORY
The recipe for Rogue Chocolate Stout was created several years ago for export to Japan. The exported twelve ounce Chocolate Bear Beer bottle label is in Kanji and features a teddy bear with a pink heart on his belly. Chocolate Stout was released for Valentine’s Day in 2001 in a twenty-two ounce bottle for the US market. The label features a Roguester (Sebbie Buhler) on the label

Brewed by Rogue Ales in the style defined as a Sweet Stout and they are in coastal Newport, Oregon USA

This might be higher in IBU than the double version at 69, and this is a 22 OZ or 650ml bottle that has beer of 6.3% ABV, which means 189 calories a serve, and 3.2 standard drink units in the bottle in NZ.

Ebony in color with a rich creamy head. The mellow flavor of oats, chocolate malts, and real chocolate are balanced perfectly with the right amount of hops for a bittersweet finish. Chocolate Stout is brewed with 10 ingredients: Northwest Harrington and Klages, Crystal 135-165 and Beeston Chocolate Malts, Cascade Hops, Rolled Oats and Roasted Barley, Natural Chocolate Flavor, Free Range Coastal Waters and PacMan Yeast.

So it also says… An earthy flavor of oats and hops that gives way to a rich chocolate truffle finish.

Truffles!

Lots of coffee/chocolate aroma on opening, and that settles to a milky chocolate smoothness, that was clever.

Great pour great head, fluffy mocha coloured. Not a ‘thick’ pour but it looked great, head is persistent.

Aroma is still a milky coffee chocolate affair, it’s very moorish.

I was expecting more on the taste profile from this, a bigger oomph, but this is a quiet beer, with a lot of the aroma translating into a restrained flavour profile. Weirdly I’m picking up some spice notes in this, I have no idea.

This isn’t a full mouthfeel beer, and the lingering aftertaste really does sneak up slightly after you think you’ve finished enjoying the mouthful.

The aroma though. Really really full on.

But I wanted more that I didn’t get, I wanted fuller mouthfeel, I wanted more coffee or chocolate in the palate. I didn’t get it. Which surprised me, and leaves me to hope that the Double/Red Bottle version is somewhat better.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. I wasn’t overwhelmed or over enjoyed by drinking this.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? Not as much as I wanted or expected to.
Would I have another? No.
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? No, this was disappointing.

I was listening to a band called the “The Clean” who are an influential indie rock band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978, and have been described as the most influential ‘Dunedin Sound‘ band.

This is a track called “Anything Could Happen”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tf1wzg4rdE

SWEET STOUT

Dark brown to black in colour. Sweet stouts come in three main varieties – milk stout, oatmeal stout, and foreign stout. Milk stouts are made with the addition of lactose, and are sweet, low-alcohol brews. Oatmeal lends a smooth fullness of body to stouts, while foreign stouts are stronger (6.5-8% abv) and have a sweet malt profile and high esters. All of the sweet stouts are noted for their restrained roastiness in comparison with other stouts, and low hop levels.