Chocolat No. 7
Shimane Beer Co. / Beer Hearn in Matsue, Shimane, Japan 🇯🇵
Stout Regular|
Score
6.64
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle at Kaeru. Choc roast in nose, cocoa, marmite! Taste is more sweet, apples, bit of choc, bit burnt, dark fruit, cocoa powder caramel. Nice enough.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
300 ml bottle at home, bought at Tanakaya in January, 2016 edition. Clear dark brown color. Light beige head, quickly receding. Aroma's of rich chocolate, cocoa, sweet malts, dark sugar. Retronasal there's lots of chocolatey sweetness, cocoa, dark sugar, light fruit candies as well. Flavor is (above) moderate sweet, chocolate, light fruity. Medium bodied. Long finish with no new flavors. Quite nice.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
300ml bottle thanks to doug. Pours out dark brown almost black topped with a small tan head. Nose is sweet milk chocolate lots of malts and some odd grain. Taste is more of the milk chocolate sweetness roast malts and a odd grain along with metallic notes.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle thanks to Mick. Pours a dark brown color with a medium white head. Amazing boc and bottle presentation. A big chocolate milky nose. The flavor is big chocolate, mint, huge sugary chocolate, German alcohol chocolate cherry.
TBone (30139) reviewed Chocolat No. 7 from Shimane Beer Co. / Beer Hearn 11 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5
Bottle vintage 2012 @ wpbf. Dark opaque black color, beige head. Malty, raisins and glue in the nose. Medium-bodied. Flavor is tart with some chocolate. Not aged very well.
laiti (11645) reviewed Chocolat No. 7 from Shimane Beer Co. / Beer Hearn 11 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5
33 cl bottle @ wPBF Ⅲ
Aroma has artifical chocolate and toasted sugar. Flavour is rather bitter and high on soy sauce. Also some dark chocolate and rubber. A 200% chocolate would taste like this if it could exist.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottled@wPBFIII. Deep ambery brown (close to black colour), small brown head. Aroma is toffee, some toasted notes, mild chocolate as well as some nice tobacco. Flavour is similar, but has a very strong sourness to it. Oxidation gone wrong.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Bottled at Petalax Beer Festival. Hazy dark brown, small head. Cocoa powder aroma. Tart with light-medium body and clean, rounded mouthfeel. Tart cherry brandy, cocoa powder. Low bitterness. Some refreshing cherry tartness, but too much Floris Chocolat to be good.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
300 ml bottle (2014 edition at 9% ABV) from Yamaoka in Kyoto. Enjoyed on the shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. Black with light tan head. Aromas of light cola, dark chocolate, sweet roast, vanilla, light caramel. Tastes of dark chocolate, roast, cocoa, vanilla, slight nutty notes. Medium-full body with a dry finish.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
The numbers for this rating are for the 2010 edition aged 4 years.... Last year, my lovely wife gave me a 2010 & 2011 Chocolat No. 7 Stout for Valentine’s. This year I decided to do a three year vertical tasting to celebrate February 14th’s Day of Love and so picked up the latest vintage 2012 directly from the brewery. I served them all in identical snifter’s to really compare the colors & aromas. I decided to start from newest to oldest, so here goes with my thoughts on the 2012! 2012 It poured a dark reddish brown that was black in the glass with a thin burnt orange head and it looks like Coca-cola in the glass with an effervescent carbonation rising. The aroma is boozy, umami savouryness & chocolate - think Hershey’s chocolate syrup. The body is smooth, med-full but the light carbonation is slightly distracted giving the beer a zesty finish. The taste is surprisingly nutty, then umami, soy, alcohol heat & light chocolate flavor that is much less pronounced than in the nose. Repeated sips give more chocolate, sweet & tasty. All in all the 2012 is solid but nothing to write home about. Appearance 3-4 Palate 3-4 Taste 7-8 Aroma 7 Overall 12 2011 Next up is the 2011 that I’ve had sitting in my cellar since last year(bought as a set with the 2010). It pours a similar dark black but the thin head of foam was more of a tan. The visible carbonation is much less which is to be expected. The aroma has changed quite a bit becoming more complex, softer & not as boozy. Plums, soft chocolate, light mustiness indicative of slight oxidization. Still some hints of umami but more subdued, the chocolate is going towards the forefront. The body is much smoother, more creamy with just a touch of light carbonation. The taste is kind of wow, fudge, light caramel, umami, roasted notes in the finish. Really nicely balanced out, any harshness in terms of body+flavor is disappearing. The 2011 has already markedly improved, going from solid to pretty damn good. Appearance 3-4 Palate 4 Aroma 8 Taste 8 Overall 14 2010 Strangely the 2010 seemed to pour with more carbonation in terms of head than either of the other two as well as a small island of bubbles lingering on the surface of the beer. It pours the same reddish brown-black pour so in terms of appearance this beer didn’t really change over time. The aroma on the other hand has, wine or port like fruity notes, some umami but also a certain acidity or sour vinegar like quality. Not getting much chocolate at all. It’s got more of a sour beer quality to it. The body is smooth, creamy with soft round carbonation really appeatizing. The flavor has completely changed, definitely more like a sour beer at first with umami, soy & chocolate covered sour cherries, then some woodsy notes before finishing on a sweet syrupy chocolate caramel. Frikin’ delicious and not at all what I expected from a chocolate beer. Still has some warming going down but no booziness is evident otherwise. Appearance 4 Palate 4-5 Aroma 8 (but completely different) Taste 8-9 Overall 16 Honestly, I am blown away by how this beer has developed. It went from savoury & somewhat harsh to smooth chocolaty fruitiness before finishing in a slightly sour fruity chocolate. Definitely worth aging, none were bad but from solid you went to pretty good to damn good/great. My wife prefered the 2012, I liked the 2010 best but the 2011 probably had the most chocolate flavor to it. Not a super chocolatey beer, in that sense it is subtle but well done. I congratulate Shimane beer on putting together this beer!