OK, I just opened up a very special bottle of beer.  They only make this once a year (sometimes once every few years).  Cost me about $17 for the 750ml bottle.

THIS BEER ROCKS!  The wife loved it, too.  Here is a description (they do a better job than me describing it):

www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/food_drink/noshing/documents/03588974.asp

This Valentine’s Day, forget the Whitman’s Sampler. The ever-adventurous folks at Sam Adams have gone one better, coming up with a confectionary concoction that infuses the robust, dark complexity of a bock with the luscious, semisweet-chocolate aromatics of cocoa beans. Few beers are better suited to soothe your soul on a chilly night of swirling wind and snow.

The bock style is ideal for this time of year — a big, warming beer with a gorgeous ruby-brown complexion. It was developed centuries ago by Bavarian monks to sustain them through abstemious Lenten weeks when eating was verboten but quaffing was sacrosanct.

"This is a true South German bock," says Sam Adams founder Jim Koch, over pints of the stuff at his Jamaica Plain brewery. "A big, malty, more alcoholic, warming rich bock."

With one twist. "I love chocolate," he says. "And I love beer. Both beer and chocolate have extraordinary flavor complexity. And so the idea of putting the two together intrigued me because of the depth and layers of flavor you could imagine from that." Koch points out that chocolate has not always been used almost exclusively as a sweet confection; only in the past century or so has it shown up primarily in candy bars. "It’s a very versatile spice that has been underused," he says. "You’ve got this incredible package [of flavors]: bitter, tart, earthy. It’s got some almond, it’s got mocha, it’s got cherry ... it’s got a lot going on."

Chocolate has shown up in porters and stouts before, but Koch wanted to avoid the "cliché" of a chocolate stout. "I wanted something to bring out the smoothness, the richness, the velvety taste of chocolate, rather than the burnt notes. That’s when the idea of a bock started to make sense."

So he teamed up with Berkeley chocolatiers Scharffen Berger and set about figuring how best it could be done. Almost immediately, they faced two dilemmas. First, in what form do you use the chocolate — when it’s still a raw cocoa bean, or as a processed bar? And at what point in the brewing process do you add it to the beer? In the mill? The mash tub? Kettle? Fermenter? After months of trial and error, Koch and his brewers decided on the best course of action.

"Basically, we aged the [finished] beer on a bed of what are called cocoa nibs. Those are the dried cocoa beans as they come from the farm. And it makes sense, in retrospect. We get the chocolate at the very beginning of the processing, so we’re as close as possible to the essence of the chocolate ... and then we put it in the beer at the end of the process. So it sort of minimizes the processing of it all."

The real richness of chocolate flavor comes from the aroma, Koch explains, and limiting the machinations involved in infusing the beer with the bean maximizes its olfactory impact. As a welcome side effect, the "long, slow, cold infusion" process, which lasts about a month, brings out all the flavor and aromatics of cocoa beans, while adding none of the extra calories of chocolate.

Which is a good thing, because the bock makes a perfect partner for guilty postprandial pleasures like chocolate cake, rich mousse, and mascarpone cheese and fruit — more flavors that meld euphoniously with the mercurial mélange at work in the beer.

"Beer and chocolate are two of the most complex foods or beverages," says Koch. "There’s so much going on in your mouth. It’s like three symphonies playing at once."

INCREDIBLE!

Chocolate beer!!!!





ghey

Quoted: Chocolate beer!!!! ghey

Then me and the wife are rainbow-flag-waving, muff-diving/butt-pounding flamers!

Sam Adams

Sig Line Test

Quoted: Sig Line Test

lol good one

Quoted: Sig Line Test

BWAHAHAHAH!!!!! PWNED!!!

Quoted: Sig Line Test

I cant get any till mid January

i heard about it a little while back...  i wouldn't mind trying it.  what's the alcohol content on it?

Then me and the wife are rainbow-flag-waving, muff-diving/butt-pounding flamers!

Quote of the year!

I'll take two Sammy

Quoted: Then me and the wife are rainbow-flag-waving, muff-diving/butt-pounding flamers! Quote of the year!

LOL - well, so be it then!  Damn this stuff is good - especially with . . . .PIE!

Sorry, I like Sam Adams beer but I'm just too old school to buy chocolate flavored beer.  To each his own.  I'll walk the 100 yards to the package store and load up on San Miguel Lager.

Greywolf, You are so... 2004 .  I was drinking that last December.  The Old Chicago restaurant in Colorado Springs got a few kegs of it in.  It's good to know you can buy it in bottles now.

For the rest of you responding with the typical Arfcom kneejerk negativity of anything you haven't experienced - give it a try.

Some of you and your "ghey" responses...

"doth protest too much" is how I recall Shakespeare putting it.

I don't understand why the large brewers are not following SA's lead.  Their Boston and Pale Ale's are fanfriggintastic.  I will look for the Bock.

I dare some arfcommer to post a video of themselves or some other sap doing a beer-bong of a bottle of this stuff.

Chocolate flavored beer?

Why not try the urine flavored beer next time....

Sounds good.  I'll keep my eye out for a bottle.

Up in my neck of the woods, Saranac sells a winter variety 12 pack that is awesome.  I love them all but my favorite is the caramel porter.

Ever had Old Style?

Quoted: Chocolate flavored beer? Why not try the urine flavored beer next time....

interesting

Heck if I can find it I'll try it.

I've been looking around here but yet to find any :-/

Sam Adams Winter Lager is the best beer I've ever tasted.

Quoted: Chocolate flavored beer? Why not try the urine flavored beer next time....

If you had ever tasted any beer better than Buttwater, then you would realize that beer and chocolate perfectly complement each other. In fact, a decent Stout or Porter is often nearly indistinguishable from dark chocolate.

This combination makes perfect sense.

If you haven't tried the Sam Adam's lite you should.....


Tastes like Killian's Red or Amber Bock but it's light. Go figure.

That'd be interesting. If it's anything like Brooklyn's Chocolate Stout I'm game.