Chocolate Ale
Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale Rotating|
Score
6.81
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Ale with Cacao Nibs, Chocolate and Vanilla Extracts (Smokestack Series)
One of the brightest stars in a city filled with culinary treasures, Christopher Elbow has been handcrafting masterpieces in chocolate for more than fifteen years. In that time, the reputation of his artistic delicacies has spread around the globe. Elbow’s sweets are distinguished by their use of unusual and sometimes surprising flavors and ingredients. In that adventurous spirit we joined forces to bring you a very special Chocolate Ale.
Medium bodied and effervescent, the aroma evokes dried fruits, earth and cocoa, with just a hint of spicy hops. Mouthwatering flavors of Valrhona chocolate from Dominican cacao nibs weave seamlessly between layers of honey, brown sugar, caramel and nutty malt, deftly harmonizing and rounding into a luscious, lingering finish.
One of the brightest stars in a city filled with culinary treasures, Christopher Elbow has been handcrafting masterpieces in chocolate for more than fifteen years. In that time, the reputation of his artistic delicacies has spread around the globe. Elbow’s sweets are distinguished by their use of unusual and sometimes surprising flavors and ingredients. In that adventurous spirit we joined forces to bring you a very special Chocolate Ale.
Medium bodied and effervescent, the aroma evokes dried fruits, earth and cocoa, with just a hint of spicy hops. Mouthwatering flavors of Valrhona chocolate from Dominican cacao nibs weave seamlessly between layers of honey, brown sugar, caramel and nutty malt, deftly harmonizing and rounding into a luscious, lingering finish.
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6.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle shared by Doug, thanks man
Appearance: Clear copper/amber with a big off-white head and good lacing
Aroma: Bitter bakers chocolate
Taste: Chili peppers, cocoa and vanilla
Nice
Appearance: Clear copper/amber with a big off-white head and good lacing
Aroma: Bitter bakers chocolate
Taste: Chili peppers, cocoa and vanilla
Nice
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Jun 2011
at 17:04
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
The lasting off-white head of this beer rest above a hazy, medium yellow body. Sweet chocolate aroma. Nice chocolate flavor. Interesting beer.
Tried
on 02 Jun 2011
at 12:07
8.1/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 10
Overall 8.5
750 c&c from Malt & Vine. Pours ruddy amber with a 4 finger creamy off-white head. Aroma from the bottle is milk chocolate. Med body. The flavor is very like Hershey’s syrup. It’s fairly dry, and just somewhat bitter. Maybe a touch of vanilla. No matter how you slice this it’s mostly chocolate! A very good rendition of the "style".
Tried
from Bottle
on 31 May 2011
at 17:50
6.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle from a generous trader. Shared by me at Dmac’s tasting. Pours reddish brown. Off white head. Nose of vegetables, chocolate, spicy pepper and citrus. Taste is same with much more chocolate in the finish. Some smoked caramel malts in taste.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Apr 2011
at 19:01
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle @ private beer tasting, Denver. Thanks to Adnielsen. Pours reddish golden with a white head. Aroma of sweet malt, sweet milk chocolate, cherries. Taste is sweet milk chocolate, sweet fruit, cherries, vanilla, caramel, hints of oak and bourbon. Medium body, low carbonation. Nice beer, very light and easy drinking for the ABV here. 090311
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Mar 2011
at 07:28
7.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle opened on the bus ride to the Hunahpu release. Pours light brownish amber color with tan head. Aromas of cocoa and vanilla with some floral hops. Sweet cocoa flavor with some caramel and vanilla. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Thanks to whoever opened this.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Mar 2011
at 18:16
7/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Hazy amber color, with a really big chocolate nose and flavor, surpsing for a beer so light in color. Smooth finish, nice.
Tried
on 13 Mar 2011
at 08:12
8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
An interesting premise here - use a much lighter base beer in order to showcase the character of the raw cocoa bean - in this respect, the beer is a major success - hazy amber - nose is dominated by cocoa, with some vanilla, earthiness, doughy/nutty malt, a bit of spicy alcohol - medium body, full but sof carbonation - reminds me just a tiny bit of what Fantome Chocolat pulls off flavor wise, only with alcohol adding the spice - starts off a little dry, peppery, toasty - gets a little nutty through the middle, as the cocoa comes on strong and dominates through the finish - sweetens up a little after the cocoa comes in, bringing some vanilla character and a bit of cherry flavor - quite a bit of alcohol on the tail end, but in this case it works, adding a spiciness to the lingering dark chocolate flavor - artisan chocolate plus beer equals win!
Tried
on 25 Feb 2011
at 19:37
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
This beer is an interesting experiment.
Advantages: not your regular "chocolate" beer and by that I mean its not sweet, not dark, well attenuated, and actually highlighting the cocoa. So, as far as the Christopher Elbow portion of this project, its done well.
Disadvantages: while the base beer is not the typical chocolate beer and its well attenuated, its also dull. I would not drink the base beer on its own. It does a good job playing back up and accentuating the cocoa. The alcohol is apparent but I feel its intended to be, so I let that slide.
Overall: the beer does a great job making a chocolate ale, the chocolate is well placed within the context of the rest of the beer. Unfortunately, the underlying beer is a high alcohol dud. The two combined make for an average beer, however this beer is much more than the sum of its parts. It really depends on which angle you want to look at and its easy to both love and be underwhelmed by the final product.
P.S. this was a pain in the ass to actually get and I thank my wonderful girlfriend for finding it.
Advantages: not your regular "chocolate" beer and by that I mean its not sweet, not dark, well attenuated, and actually highlighting the cocoa. So, as far as the Christopher Elbow portion of this project, its done well.
Disadvantages: while the base beer is not the typical chocolate beer and its well attenuated, its also dull. I would not drink the base beer on its own. It does a good job playing back up and accentuating the cocoa. The alcohol is apparent but I feel its intended to be, so I let that slide.
Overall: the beer does a great job making a chocolate ale, the chocolate is well placed within the context of the rest of the beer. Unfortunately, the underlying beer is a high alcohol dud. The two combined make for an average beer, however this beer is much more than the sum of its parts. It really depends on which angle you want to look at and its easy to both love and be underwhelmed by the final product.
P.S. this was a pain in the ass to actually get and I thank my wonderful girlfriend for finding it.
Tried
on 23 Feb 2011
at 21:25
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pour is a brown with a huge tan head. Aroma is the downer of this beer. Some cocoa but very faint. Flavor is better. Its all things chocolate with a little fruitness at the end. Alcohol is there but not overpowering. Finish leaves a lot of cocoa on the tounge. Good but not great as the aroma is faint and this really didn’t need to be 9.1%.
Tried
on 19 Feb 2011
at 14:04