She's a black beer, and I'm not sure that I could tell the difference between this and her sister based entirely on looks. This is the same color, and it has the same head with virtually no staying power. However, I don't notice the red hue that I'd seen in the double chocolate. It's entirely possible I was seeing that because of the red bottle that it was sitting next to. I mean, I don't think that's likely, but it's possible. The aroma is the familiar dark chocolate and smoke that I've come to expect with these chocolate stouts.First sip does not go as well as I had hoped. The chocolate is there, but it's weak and can't stand up to the seltzer water that seems to be pervading the rest of my mouth. There's a little bit of a smoke, and some little twigs that were tossed into the chocolate to make it interesting, but that seltzer water is weak and not especially pleasant. This is why we don't just sip these things. But see what a gulp can bring.
Tip-in is moderate carbonation burn with the bitter chocolate riding a wave of watered down smoke with a nutty bend to it. The middle fizzes a lot more with carbonation, and a smooth chocolate and oak try to run underneath it, but they are unsuccessful in dispelling the absurdly dominant seltzer. The finish is where the bitterness from the chocolate is brought forward with a little bit of coffee bitterness before earth finally brings relief. The trail off is a ghost of the bitterness that the finish had in full.
Bottom Line: Apparently you really have to double the amount of chocolate in order to make this a good beer.
1.75/5 - Not Great
