Quick Sips: Terrapin Moo Hoo Chocolate

True Confession: When I was a teenager, I had a giant wall of yellow in my bedroom made up of nothing but Yoo-Hoo cans. Until beer came along, it was the greatest beverage known to man. I drank so much of it, my zits had zits. Seriously, all those cans covered a whole wall in my bedroom.

Also, I failed to rinse out the cans before I stacked them up, resulting in an awful spider problem best left for a horror novel.

A horror novel that features Terrapin’s Moo-Hoo, however, is one I’d read twice. Maybe three times. This to-die-for beer is a milk stout brewed with loads of chocolate, making it a creamy, delicious adult version of Yoo-Hoo. If this was around when I was 15, I would have died of liver failure by the age of 19.

As it stands, I’ll have to hold out for 59.

Moo-Hoo isn't quite as mind-blowing as it was a few years back, but it's still worth grabbing without hesitation and remains one of my favorite chocolate beers. Get it!

(NOTE: Yes, this story is, sadly, true. All of it.)

NOTE 2: Portions of this post originally appeared in The Philly Weekly

Quick Sips: Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Aside from Sierra Nevada's classic Bigfoot,  there are few beers that have been an annual tradition in my life the way Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout has been. I don't even remember when I had my first. The late 1990s, maybe. I just remember it was INTENSE in a way beers had never been before.

I've been around the block a few times since then, but even so this remains an intense, complex, and utterly delicious beer.

First, take note: This beer is NOT made with chocolate! The "chocolate" in the name is all due to the roasted barley used in the beer. Once brewed, it takes on an amazing chocolate quality, but no real chocolate is present. The taste is just a miracle of the brewing process.

So anyway,  this amazing annual tradition, this big giant nearly 11% ABV stout that can last for years in your cupboard, how does it taste?

The nose is rich with dark malts and alcohol, with warm chocolate tones very, very faint beneath it. Smells boozy and sweet. And yeah, the taste follows through on the expectations. Big, fat dark malts with touches of chocolate throughout.

When it's fresh, you can taste the HELL out of the 10% ABV. A lot of modern American craft beers mask their alcohol content pretty well. Not Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout. When fresh, this beer tastes potent. Not a lot of roasty, coffee-like flavor here. Some dark chocolate, a lot of rich, black malt. and (when fresh) loads of booze.

But here's the thing: This beer ages well. It will keep wonderfully in your cupboard. In fact, having had this many times with six months, a year, or several years of age on it, I can say with experience that it only gets better with age. The alcohol mellows and the burn subsides. What comes out are rich chocolate tones, roasty cocoa, and more.

This beer is DELICIOUS. It's complex but young when fresh.  Buy a four-pack, but don't drink it until the NEXT year. You'll thank me for it. And buy the following year's four-pack while you do it!

From the Cellar: Dogfish Head Theobroma

Another entry into the From the Cellar series, this one showcases a bottle of Dogfish Head's Theobroma, a late spring seasonal beer that is part of their lineup of ancient ales. This rather unusual brew is made with cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, honey, chilies and annatto (fragrant tree seeds).

I happen to be a big fan of their forays into beer's past. They're offbeat and unusual, almost never what you expect from a beer, but they're almost always interesting enough to be worth a try.

One year isn't all that long to sit on a beer, especially one that boasts a big alcohol content and a hefty malt bill like this one, so I expected it would hold up fairly well. The first clue that it didn't was in the absolute lack of a nose. This beer was poured a bit cold, but not too cold, so the lack of aroma is surprising. There is some cocoa in the nose but it's faint. Not chocolatey at all. There are hints of dark berries here, too.

Hmmmm.

The taste is ... well, a year has done this beer no favors. Sure, it's a robust 9% ABV, so it's got the booze to stand up to time, but the delicate balance of chilies and cocoa and honey you get in a fresh bottle is gone. There is still a nice wash of honey there, dipped ever so slightly in cocoa, but the latter is too subtle to be of note. And the ancho chilies and annatto? Gone. Both are present when fresh, adding a hint of spice that rounds out an otherwise sweet brew, but they are nowhere to be found after a year. The primary taste is a silky honey. It's not at all unpleasant, but the complexity of the fresh bottle is gone. Also, as the beer warms the lack of spice contributes to an overly sweet character. Maybe, maybe that sweetness would turn into something nice with a few more years time, but it's doubtful it would top the interesting brew that this is when fresh.

Many Dogfish Head beers lay down pretty nicely. Beers like Word Wide Stout, 120 Minute IPA, and Burton Baton are known for aging wonderfully.

This one, alas, doesn't.

BEER: Dogfish Head Theobroma
VINTAGE: 2011
TIME AGED: 1 year
NOTES: n/a

VERDICT: Do not cellar. This beer is best enjoyed fresh.

Quick Sips: Samuel Adams the Vixen, Chocolate Chili Bock

I absolutely love this beer. Too bad it was a small batch that may or may not be available in the future. Samuel Adams, the biggest craft brewery in the United States and one of the pioneers of the American craft beer movement, recently launched their Small Batch Series of limited run beers. Of the four initial beers in this series, this one is the most offbeat and, in my opinion, the best.

And yes, you read the name right. This is a chocolate chili bock made with chilies, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon.

You might see "cinnamon" and "chili peppers" and think this beer will be a spicy mess, but think again. Both are here only just enough to counter the gooey sweetness of the chocolate. Stick your nose in the glass -- a wine glass is good for this beer -- and you'll think it's dessert. The spicy additions, however, blend nicely with the chocolate and counter the sweetness.

What impresses me is how well balanced the various elements are. The cocoa/chocolate is perfectly complemented by the chili and cinnamon. None of the three take over, which is, in my opinion, what makes it so good. Nothing here screams "CHOCOLATE BEER!" or "CHILI BEER!" Nothing extreme, just a good blend of flavors. I like a great chocolate beer (Southern Tier's Choklat, for example) and enjoy a nice chili/pepper beer (I've recently enjoyed Left Hand's Pepper Porter and Stone's outstanding 11.11.11), but it's the fine balance between the two that makes this one work.

Highly recommended. If you see it on the shelves, give it a try.