Chocolate

Chocolate heavy Westbrook 7th Anniversary on the way

Westbrook 7th Anniversary, celebrating the brewery’s 7th birthday, is coming soon. 

Celebrating birthdays is how famed Westbrook Mexican Cake got its start. It was originally brewed to celebrate a milestone, and fan demand caused to be an annual release. (Now with barrel-aged variants.)

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Posted in Garage Brewing Co., Don't Miss This

Big on vanilla & roasty chocolate: Garage Brewing Marshmallow Milk Stout

Dessert beer fan? Don’t miss Garage Brewing Marshmallow Milk Stout.

Beer Street Journal is a sucker for dessert beers. It started years ago with an addiction to Left Hand Milk Stout (aka adult chocolate milk). Since then, milk stouts, chocolate beers, vanilla beers – always on our radar. Thanks to the team at Temecula, California’s Garage Brewing Co., we have a new love –Marshmallow Milk Stout.

The base beer is a creamy, chocolatey milk stout that leans heavy on vanilla. The first whiff of this beer is like opening a bag of marshmallows. The vanilla aroma remains strong on vanilla as it mixes with light hints of chocolate. The full beer experience is a complex beer that doesn’t lean on some artifical vanilla flavor and a name to capture your attention. This dessert beer is the real deal and worth the cash if you find it.

Garage Brewing Marshmallow Milk Stout is available year-round in 12 and 22-ounce bottles, and draft.

Style: Milk Stout (w/ Vanilla. Chocolate. Lactose.)
Availability: 12oz, 22oz Bottles. Draft. Year-round.
Distribution: Southern California

7.1% ABV, 9 IBUS

PIC: Beer Street Journal

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Westbrook Brewing Co, Coming Soon, Headlines

Chocolate heavy Westbrook 7th Anniversary on the way

Westbrook 7th Anniversary, celebrating the brewery’s 7th birthday, is coming soon. 

Celebrating birthdays is how famed Westbrook Mexican Cake got its start. It was originally brewed to celebrate a milestone, and fan demand caused to be an annual release. (Now with barrel-aged variants.)

It would seem Mount Pleasant, South Carolina based brewery loves dessert beer when it comes to anniversary releases. Westbrook 7th Anniversary is first an foremost an imperial stout that is all about chocolate. Think of it like liquid cake.

For our 7th anniversary beer, we went big on the chocolate and added a little sea salt to make it interesting. Luscious notes o liquid cocoa and a smooth salinity make this beer deliciously decadent.

Westbrook 7th Anniversary will be available in 22-ounce bottles. Each of the anniversary releases have debuted around January in the past.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Chocolate. Sea Salt.)
Availability: 22oz Bottles, DRaft.
Debut: TBA

10% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Stone Brewing Co., Abnormal Beer Co., Headlines, New Releases

Inspired by ice cream: Stone Neopolitan Dynamite debuts. Here’s who’s getting it

Ice cream inspired beer? Stone Neopolitan Dynamite, a collaboration with Abnormal Beer Co. and American Homebrew Association Rally winners Paul Bischeri and Patrick Martinez, has debuted.

RELATED: Stone to team up with punk band NOFX

2017 marks the 10th year AHA members have submitted their beers for judging which includes team members at Stone Brewing. Past winners include Ken Schmidt twice (Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout) and (Kona Coffee, Macadamia, Coconut Porter), and Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard (Chocolate Cherry Stout). The winner brewer or brewers gets to brew the beer on a production scale, usually with a guest production brewery.

This year’s release Stone Neopolitan Dynamite is inspired by Neopolitan ice cream. The base beer is an imperial stout, brewed with strawberries, vanilla, chocolate and coffee.

You hold in your hands the most recent winner. Finding inspiration in that humble box of striped ice cream from out childhoods, Neapolitan Dynamite is an intense Imperial Stout brewed with vanilla, strawberries, an chocolate, revved up with a shot of coffee to fuel the ultimate dance contest on your palate, gosh!

Stone mentions this Rex Kwon Do of imperial stouts has it all. Nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, AND bow hunting skills. Plus it pairs well with a liger. That’s half man, half tiger.

Stone Neopolitan Dynamite will be available in 22-ounce bottles, and draft as a limited release. Is it headed to your market? Check the distribution below.

Style: Imperial Stout (w/ Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberries. Coffee)
Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: September 2017
Distribution: AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, IA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, MI, MO, NE, NH, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA RI, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI and Puerto Rico

8.5% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Sierra Nevada, Don't Miss This

A new Trip in the Woods: Sierra Nevada Cocoa Coconut Narwhal

Sierra Nevada Cocoa Coconut Narwhal has joined the brewery’s ‘Trip in the Woods’ Series.

Giving fans a chance to see some of Sierra Nevada’s core brands in a new light is key to the ‘Trip in the Woods’ series. The family line has already seen releases like Barrel-Aged Narwhal Imperial Stout with currants, and Ginger Bigfoot (barleywine with ginger root). It’s Narwhal Imperial Stout season once again and along with it, comes a new dessert-inspired offering.

Sierra Nevada Cocoa Coconut Narwhal is on it’s way to shelves around the U.S. and is already proving that chocolate and coconuts really take beer to the next level.

Cocoa Coconut Narwhal uses Sierra Nevada’s popular imperial stout base brewed with toasted coconut and aged in for over a year in bourbon barrels with more toasted coconut and cocoa nibs. Whether you drink it alone, or with your favorite dessert is up to you.

This very special version of our Narwhal Imperial Stout was brewed with toasted coconut and then left to mature in Kentucky Groupon barrels for nearly a year. To the barrels, we added additional coconut and cocoa nibs to create a uniquely rich and decadent stout.

Sierra Nevada Cocoa Coconut Narwhal is available in 25.4-ounce bottles for a limited time.

Style:Imperial Stout (w/ Coconut. Cocoa Nibs. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 25.4oz Bottles

Debut: Late-September 2017

11.8% ABV

Ed Note it looks like this release debuted in early September. Not every market has received this yet.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Terrapin Beer Company, Don't Miss This, New Releases

The fans voted, Terrapin White Chocolate Moo Hoo hits shelves again

Terrapin White Chocolate Moo Hoo has returned to shelves for only the second time ever.

The base beer uses cocoa nibs from Nashville, Tennessee’s Olive & Sinclair, plus a healthy helping of white chocolate. The end result is a decadent, creamy, dessert beer.

White Chocolate Moo Hoo has only seen one release despite previous plans to bring it back. For the 2016 election year, Terrapin gave their fans the opportunity to vote their favorite beer from the past back into production. We’re told White Chocolate Moo Hoo won by a landslide.

White Chocolate is our favorite specialty release by Terrapin. The white chocolate addition creates a really unique, almost esoteric flavor to this creamy dessert beer.

White Chocolate Moo Hoo is available in 16.9-ounce bottles for a limited time.

Style: Milk Stout (w/ Cocoa Nibs, White Chocolate)
Availability: 16.9oz Bottles, Draft.

Arrival: 2017

6.1% ABV

PIC: Beer Street Journal

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in The Veil Brewing, New Releases

WIRED: The Veil Brewing Single Origin Coffee Hornswoggler

The famed ‘Hornswoggler’ gets treated to a cup of coffee today. The Veil Brewing Single Origin Coffee Hornswoggler debuts at 4 pm.

This dessert beer series started with a chocolate milk stout known as Hornswoggler. The smooth, creamy, flavors of chocolate with a hint of coffee is as rich as it is pleasing. That release has spun off variants like Coconut, Oreos, and even candy bars.

The Veil Brewing Single Origin Coffee Hornswoggler is the latest variant in the lineup, featuring coffee from Richmond, Virginia based Blanchard’s Coffee. After sampling through their roasts, The Veil settled on their Colombia El Obraje variety. Those fans that have tried the brewery’s Snozzwired (and loved it), you’ll be happy to know there is 3 times more coffee in Single Origin Coffee Hornswoggler.

This is just EXPLODING with intense coffee both on the aromatics and palate. 

The Veil Brewing Single Origin Coffee Hornswoggler will be available in 16-ounce cans when the brewery opens on September 12th.

Style: Milk Stout (w/ Coffee. Lactose.)
Availability: 16oz Cans. Limited
Debut: 9/12/17

7% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in The Bruery

With a cherry on top: The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries is on the horizon

One of California’s most decadent dessert beers is getting a cherry on top. The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries is on the horizon.

A bourbon barrel-aged wheatwine serves as a boozy canvas for the waves of chocolate and vanilla introduced into this beer. The end result is wash of chocolate, vanilla oak, and vanilla beans, finishing in with a warming alcoholic heat.

Taking things a step further, the brewery has added a blend of tart and sweet cherries.

If you closed your eyes in our barrel house, you might think our brewers become chocolatiers. They dipped cherries into this limited edition of our bourbon barrel-aged wheatwine-style ale. With white chocolate flavors thanks to fresh vanilla beans, cacao nibs and extensive oak-aging, this treat for the senses has been enhanced with the addition of tart, sweet, juicy cherries.

The Bruery White Chocolate with Cherries will be a 750 milliliter bottle release. Release details are currently not available.

Style: Barleywine (w/ Cherries.  Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 750ml Bottles
Debut: TBA

14.2% ABV

by Reid Ramsay