Rogue Chocolate Stout

Dug · April 23, 2008

For the second beer of the night, I had to go with the Rogue Chocolate Stout.  On recommendation of Shea on the Young’s Double Chocolate Stout post, I just had to see what this would bring me.

As I poured the first glass, I took a deep breath and could actually smell the chocolate undertones that were in this beer.  That was a good indication of what to come, but it came about differently than I expected... more on that in a minute.  My first swig took me a bit by surprise.  While I knew it would be strong, I didn't realize how strong.  The taste hit me full force as mixtures of chocolate, malt, and burnt hops all collided on my tongue.  I say burnt hops, although I am not sure if that is really what it is because it reminds me of Starbucks Coffee a little bit.  They have that burnt undertone to their coffee like this beer has.

I actually started to get a bad taste of this in my mouth, though, as I finished my first mug... almost ready to give it a Middle of the Road review, to be honest.  That is when I stumbled upon the key (at least for my taste of this beer).  I left the remainder of the brew in the bottle and headed upstairs to give the young un' a bath.  By the time I came back down (15 minutes or so), the beer had warmed up to just the right temperature to really, really mellow out.  At this point, the colliding tastes had simmered down and were now just kind of dancing together instead of treating my tongue like a mosh pit.

Overall, the final experience was a good one, but I will note that I won't serve this beer ice cold in the future.

JBB6 Rating: Will Buy Again