Monday, January 30, 2012

Chocolate Ale Day(s) 2011 - Contingency Plan!


The excitement of the hunt is building and we are within fingers reach of Boulevard’s Chocolate Ale. I visited a local store this weekend and there were over 7 pages filled with people on “The List”. What is your back up plan if you fail to land a coveted bottle of Chocolate Ale? Never fear FatCat is here for your plan B…and C…and D…you get the picture.


Plan B
Last year kegged Chocolate Ale was available around the area infinitely longer than the bottles. If you don’t get a bottle check out a local watering hole as they will most likely have pours of Chocolate ale for weeks after the initial distribution. I tried mine last year at the Flying Saucer well after the initial bottles were gone. KCbeerblog has a list of dates some local establishments will be tapping their Chocolate Ale.

Plan C
If you are not a bar fly and do not want to venture out into the urban jungle then here are some brews that just might satisfy your chocolate needs.

Best Choice if you DO like the chocolate milk overly sweet character:
Sam Adams Chocolate Chili Bock- As I mentioned earlier, this brew sports the thinner body with the overly sweet/chocolate character that is very much like Boulevard’s Chocolate Ale. The chili character/heat in this brew is minimal so don’t let that turn you off. I did see a bunch of this stuff at Tipsy’s in Mission, KS over the weekend.

Best Choice if you DO NOT like the chocolate milk overly sweet character:
Youngs Double Chocolate Stout – one of the best chocolate beers available, period. This brew does not have the overly sweet character that Boulevard Chocolate Ale has. It is more of a semisweet dark chocolate character. Very nice.

Plan D
If you just have to have the name chocolate on your bottle:
Arcadia Coco Loco – solid brew but is more of a bittersweet chocolate character
Rogue Chocolate Stout – decent chocolate brew
Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti – I like regular Yeti better but this does have chocolate
Sourthern Tier Choklat - A sweeter imperial stout with good chocolate characer.

If you just want a good sweet brew without chocolate being involved:
Sam Adams Cream Stout
New Holland The Poet Oatmeal Stout
Bells Third Coast Old Ale
Orkney Skull Splitter – Wee Heavy

Plan E
I can’t explain the psychological connection I made last year between Boulevard Chocolate Ale and a White Russian. For some reason the Chocolate Ale made me think of a White Russian. So instead of hunting for Chocolate Ale this year, I’m going to pop in one of the best movies ever made and enjoy a White Russian. The Dude abides!

Plan F
Become a homebrewer! If you like Chocolate Ale and want to always have access to it, or any other of your favorite commercial brews, then make it yourself. Homebrewing is not difficult and the rewards are amazing. If you want Chocolate Ale on tap at your place, then brew it up! For a starters list on homebrewing check out my suggestions in the homebrew section.

Cheers!

5 comments:

  1. Good list of backup beers. Gomer's South also still has a number of bottles of Southern Tier Choklat (at least they did a couple days ago), which in my opinion, is a great chocolate stout.

    -Pat (KC Beer Blog)

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  2. I was going to put Choklat on the list but didn't see it around this weekend. Thanks for the heads up my friend.

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  3. Blvd chocolate ale clone(grain bill from blvd brewer

    I'm going to try this.

    82% pale malt
    12% Caramel Wheat (briess but I use weyermann)
    6% Golden Naked oats (I can't find this so i will use mix of oats and honey malts)
    Hops-magnum
    yeast-american or english (I've heard its Scottish ale?)
    o.g. 1.083
    ibu 20-30

    Add 4 oz cocoa nibs in the keg and let age for 2 months.

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    Replies
    1. Looks good. As far as the yeast from what I remeber last year there wasn't too much in the way of yeast character in the Chocolate Ale. This would lean me towards an American yeast fermented fairly cool. English yeast will generally be more fruity than American. Scottish yeast should be fairly clean as well if you keep the fermenting temperatures down. If you wanted to experiment, a Belgian yeast could make an interesting addition to the chocolate nibs.

      Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

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