Fort Collins Double Chocolate Stout

Brewed By: Fort Collins Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado

Purchased: 22oz Bomber bought at in Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Imperial Stout (American), 8.1%

Today I went on a culinary adventure, and decided to cook some chili. I found a recipe for some vegetarian (mmm...healthy) chocolate chili. The recipe featured the usual suspects like onions, garlic, pinto, kidney, and black beans, tomatoes, and jalapenos. But unique to this recipe were the chipotle chiles in abodo, the chocolate, and the chocolate beer. The recipe didn't specify what beer to use, so that choice was left up to my imagination. Since the chili was spicy, savory, and chocolate-based, I wanted to stick with a dark beer. I probably could have gone with a dark Lager (I'm sure San Miguel's Dark Lager would have been great), but I was thinking Porter or Stout the whole time. In fact, I was kind of thinking about trying to find a bottle of Southern Tier's Choklat, but I was unable to locate a bottle. Ultimately, I found the Fort Collins Brewery's "Double Chocolate Stout, and figured why not try this beer. And that's why we are here today. Fortunately, the beer came in a bomber, so there are about 10oz left for me to review. 
  
The Fort Collins Brewery is actually both a brewery, and a restaurant (the restaurant is called: Gravity ten twenty or "Gravity 1020"). I was unable to find any "about" information regarding the brewery on their website, so I took a trip to their Facebook page. I hate Facebook, so consider this a privilege (to all you 3 people who read this blog). Fort Collins Brewery is labeled as a "Brewery Bar." The brewery has been open for 7 years (it was actually founded in 2003, I believe, and the Facebook page is just out of date), and has 7 full-time beers, and 4 seasonal brews.

What is lacking in brewery info, is also lacking in beer info. If you roll over to the Double Chocolate Stout page, you can read a little blurb about the beer. This is a seasonal beer (available through February) with "big chocolate and roast flavors," with some "subtle hop bitterness" to round out the malt sweetness. At 8.1% ABV, and around 45+ IBUs, this is an interesting Imperial Something. The bottle says this beer has "roasty flavors," a "rich chocolate nose," "coffee undertones," and "impeccable balance." It's not clear whether this beer is brewed with actual chocolate or not, and Ratebeer has labeled this beer as a "Sweet Stout," while BeerAdvocate is calling this an "American Double."

Rather than farting about style guidelines, let's just pour this damn thing and see what is going on. I'll give my prognosis of the beer, and you can decide if this is worth checking out. The review:

Fort Collins Double Chocolate Stout

It's probably worth noting that I had this beer opened a number of hours ago (8+), but I closed it back up using a wine stopper. With that said, there seems to be virtually no decline in freshness with respect to the pour. I've heard people say that this beer does not have an impressive head, and I disagree. I worked out a finger's worth of thick, bready, bubbly head. The head is a little darker than khaki/tan, but not quite coffee/brown. The head dissolves into a sexy cauldron effect after a couple of minutes. As the head dissolves, you are left with magnificent lacing on the side of the glass. I would say this is a black beer, or a very, very, dark brown beer. When held to bright light, I am seeing some brown escape, bur virtually no red.

The aroma on this is very nice, with a nice blend of bittersweet dark chocolate, and strong coffee aromas. I'm pulling out a woody, roasted chocolate note. There is also a strong, earthy, coffee note. There is a hint of complex malt sweetness, manifesting as molasses and chocolate. Overall, I really like the nose on this beer.

The taste...I'm almost getting no front end on this, as the beer initially hits the palate. Mid-palate is an assault of wood and roast, and then chocolate. The back palate is sweet, and actually does kind of flirt with a Sweet Stout. There is quite a bit of roast in here, and there seems to be some hop presence (earthy; floral; bitter). The finish is roasty, bitter, and dry. There is a pull towards the Russian Imperial Stout style, with hints of a Sweet Stout. This is definitely an Imperial Something. I'm getting quite a bit of booze and alcohol warming on the back-end. I taste bittersweet chocolate, hints of dark fruit, wood, roast, molasses, a hint of cream, and some alcohol. The more I drink, the more I get hints of coffee and grain on the front end. 

It looks like an Imperial Stout...and it kind of behaves like one. This is full-bodied, well-carbonated, and has good palate depth and moderate complexity. It actually goes down pretty smoothly for 8.1% ABV, although it's a tad boozy and dry on the back end. It is well-balanced: it is sweet, but also bitter and dry. Up front I'm getting coffee and grain; mid-palate is woody, roasty, and bitter dark chocolate; the back palate has some hops, dark fruits, hints of a Sweet Stout (cream), and then a roasty, bitter, dry finish. Is this a "Double Chocolate" stout, or a "Russian Imperial Stout with a chocolate emphasis?"

Rating: Above-Average  

Score: 77% 

Fort Collins may or may not be doing a disservice to this beer by generously calling it a "Double Chocolate Stout." That seems to imply a beer that is going to bring out the chocolate in full force...kind of like Southern Tier's Choklat. However, this beer does have wonderful chocolate notes, they are just subtle. So...if you don't like your beer overwhelmingly sweet or assertive (like the Choklat), this might be your cup of tea. I don't think this beer is quite a Sweet Stout...for my money, this tastes like a Russian Imperial with a nice chocolate and coffee kick. Is this beer a pioneering or defining beer? Probably not. Is it worth trying? Definitely, at least once.

But, more importantly, this beer worked out really well in my chili. This was a beer I have never had, and ultimately it yielded great chili. The beer wasn't overly sweet, and added some nice balance and complexity to the base of the chili. I would definitely cook with this beer again, or pair it with food. With that said...cheers to cooking with beer and cheers to the Fort Collins Brewery.