Review Date 1/30/2011
Try?
Re-buy?
Heads up, chocolate lovers: here's a beer for you. There's a rub, though, as though Fort Collins Chocolate Stout looks like chocolate when you pour it into a glass, smells like chocolate when you hold it to your nose, and tastes like chocolate when you sip it, I can assure you that no chocolate was harmed in the making of this beer.
An outrage, you say! A fraud, perpetrated on decent chocolate-o-philes everywhere by those fiends at this Fort Collins, Colorado based brewery! Not quite. Because Fort Collins chocolate stout is made with chocolate malt, my friends, along with roasted barley to impart its dark black color and roasty chocolate and coffee notes. Roasting cocoa beans gives you the key ingredient to chocolate, after all, while roasting coffee beans gives our morning cup of Joe it's distinct flavors and aromas.
Kiln malt to a high degree and you'll get similar results. Hence, beers that taste chocolaty without any actual chocolate. Contrary to popular myth, all that deep dark color and roasty flavor doesn't mean a beer with higher alcohol content. This is true with Fort Collins Chocolate Stout, which has an alcohol content of about 4.9% by volume. That's less than many domestic lagers that weigh in at 5% or more.
Fort Collins Chocolate Stout pours to a light black, not fully opaque color with a slight tinge of ruby if you hold it up to the light. Head formation is minimal but the nose is very inviting with rich dark chocolate aromas. Talking a sip, the first thing I notice is that the body is a bit thin for my taste. Still, there's plenty of flavor here: roasty espresso and dark, bittersweet chocolate come right to the fore. I really like the roasty notes here.