Jim at Sherbrooke Liquor Store has made a hobby in the last couple of years of collaborating on creative, challenging, well-crafted beer that become almost-exclusives in his store. I have talked about the Sherbrooke series before, so won’t now, but recently I got to sample the latest Sherbrooke creation – Heartstopper Hot Chocolate Stout. This time it is a three-way – with Sherbrooke, Saskatoon micro Paddock Wood and Edmonton beerfly Jeff Werstiuk.
It is actually Jeff’s recipe, based on a homebrew he did up a few years ago. Jeff is the driver behind this beer, pitching it to both Jim and Paddock Wood’s Stephen.
And what do they mean by a Hot Chocolate Stout. Well, it is supposed to be a stout with hot chocolate character, which would have worked so much better for me on the ski hill as a young adult than the watery hot chocolate they served.
It pours an appropriate deep, inky black that is utterly impenetrable. The head is thin and dies away quickly, likely the victim of the oily chocolate. The aroma offers big cocoa and a touch of soft, silky vanilla. I don’t pick up much stout roastiness.
The taste presents a rich chocolate sweetness upfront, a bit of fruit and roast and then an unexpected kicker at the end of light spicy heat. This is cayenne pepper, and it most certainly sneaks up on you. I don’t remember my mom putting cayenne in my hot chocolate, only marshmallows, but I can understand the inclination. Knowing it was there, at the beginning of the taste I thought “where is the heat”, but then – bam! – it came at the end. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t hot hot hot, but more a subtle heat that sharpens the beer and changes the finish. There is also a linger of cocoa in the beer as well.
The label says there is also vanilla in the recipe, but other than a bit of aroma I find I cannot detect that addition. I suspect it is overpowered by roast, chocolate and cayenne. This is a flavourful, challenging beer. My favourite attribute is the balance between the competing flavours. I do wonder if the stout qualities are a bit underdone, as it could use a drier roast character to distinguish it. I wonder if it could pass as a robust porter base rather than a stout?
At any rate, this is a rare, one-time beer that those able to should pick up a bottle to sample. You won’t be disappointed. This is a unique, creative beer. Good thing it is sold in singles, just in case.
December 22, 2010 at 11:42 AM
The vanilla is there not so much for a detectable flavor itself, but a low vanilla addition often helps enhance the perception of chocolate, and can sometimes smooth the dark bitterness. I believe that was what Jeff was going for, and successfully achieved.
December 25, 2010 at 10:18 AM
I believe what was being shot for in this beer was a base of a foreign extra stout, with the emphasis sliding to the sweeter version of this beer. So that may explain the lack of an overly roasty character. I found that as the beer warmed up over drinking a whole bottle that the chocolate backed off a bit and the vanilla began to make itself known. I agree with you that may favorite part of the beer is the overall balance, along with the subtle heat that builds as you drink the whole bottle.