Beer Review - Chocolate Indulgence

Brewery Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout - 7% ABV

Another of the seasonal beers that sing of spring are the chocolate ales and stouts.  Think of sitting next to an emptied Easter basket with candy wrappers everywhere and chocolate smeared all over your face and hands.  Even if you don't do the Easter thing that kind of chocolate binging is not an uncommon occurance.  There was at time in my life where I was that kid, stuffing mass quantities of chocolate in my face like that.  Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate (I know it is not really chocolate, leave me to my delusions) it didn't matter, just give me some, give me a lot.  Now I must be a bit more selective and sneak in chocolate where I can, and I can find it in some beers. 

I am afraid of what several misguided brewers are doing to create beers that John Q. Public will buy.  Instead of creating beers that are reminiscent of a flavor they are increasingly using additives to achieve a flavor intensity that should not be in beer.  For example fruit concentrates added to give the beer a sickening sweet flavor that tastes like a sugared kids drink.  Or liquid smoke added to a porter to create a disgusting over done smoked beer that tastes like your house has burned down.  Chocolate and candy sugar added to stouts instead of allowing the roasted malts carry the flavor as they should.  These greedy sales mongers will destroy the craft brew market much as the wine market was destroyed by uninspired, souless corporations producing cheap, flavorless wines just to make a quick buck.

But this flavored beer is not one of those.  Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence was created as a chocolate stout should be produced.  It is a delicious stout with hints of chocolate rather than a chocolate bar stuffed into a bottle.  The stout pours dark with little or no light passing through and there is not much of a head, and what head does appear sticks nicely to the sides of the glass leaving pleasant lacing.  The smell of chocolate comes through along with the roasted malts, dark fruits and a bit of coffee and the flavors follow along that same path.  The wonderful part ot this stout is that the chocolate enhances the stout characteristics rather than overpowering them.  The cocoa marries with the roasted malts and coffee flavors, making a brew where no one flavor overrides the others.  This offering would be the perfect dessert accompanyment.  Stick to the beers produced by those that honor the beer making traditions, like Brewery Ommegang and we may all get through this.


Brewery Ommegang
656 County Highway 33
Cooperstown NY 13326-9248
http://www.ommegang.com/