Qawa

 Qawa is a towering imperial stout brewed with coffee and chocolate. The beer, born in Toronto, comes from Bandit Brewery, while the coffee is sourced from Propeller and the chocolate from ChocoSol. Sold in 500mL bottles, the beer is coal black and it pours with a dark tan head.

Aromatically, dark chocolate it absolutely the star of the show, though there is a comforting espresso subtext as well. The flavour is many things, but it sure ain’t subtle. The beer is sweet and malty, with enormous chocolate richness and jumbo boozy heat. Dark roast coffee is also well represented, particularly in the bitterness that mingles with persistent sweetness in the finish. In the margins, there are notes of leather and raisin. The mouthfeel is smooth, yet thick.

I try not to ascribe morality to food and drink, so I’m not going to use the adjective “sinful”, but this boozy bastard really is an indulgence. Truthfully, I found it over sweet, but not to the point of being cloying. The creamy/syrupy texture, though, is spot on for a dessert beer. Qawa really warmed me up over a cigar on a damp, snowy November Sunday evening.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Wellington Chocolate Milk Stout

With a 473mL can that features a rubber boot-wearing bovine, Chocolate Milk Stout comes from Guelph, Ontario’s Wellington Brewery. The beer, a healthy 6.6% stout, is brewed with flaked oats, lactose, and cocoa powder. It’s a coal coloured ale that pours with a healthy tan head and exudes a sweet yet bitter chocolate aroma.

Chocolate Milk Stout has a rich, cocoa flavour and a pleasingly thick mouthfeel. It’s modestly bitter (20 IBUs) and I’d suggest it could have been more so. It has a definite chocolate milk vibe, so it nails that, and the strength is good; however I’d have liked a deeper dive into IBU Land and a little less sweetness.

As an after dinner beer, I think Wellington’s Chocolate Milk Stout is a tasty treat. I’d serve the heck out of this stuff with vanilla ice cream, and I bet it’d slay. I’d like it to be more bitter, but it has great strength and it doesn’t taste artificial.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Terry’s Chocolate Stout

A stout festively brewed with orange peel, Terry’s Chocolate Stout comes from Picton, Ontario’s Prince Eddy’s Brewing Company. Sold in 650mL (?) bottles, the label doesn’t list an alcohol count—just a mustachioed, sunglasses-wearing pint with an orangy background.

TCS is a dark beer with amber highlights and a dense and sudsy tan head. The beer has a milk chocolate aroma tinged with roasted malt and a hint of orange. The flavour is stout-y and chocolatey, but with only the faintest orange twist providing a little bitterness at the finish. Dwarfing the citrus, the flavour is rich in roasty malt and a sweet, chocolate vibe.

Not as thick and cloying as some chocolate stouts, but not the orange-heavy tipple I wanted it to be. The beer was enjoyable, but unremarkable.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Prodromus

Prodromus is an ambitious entry from Omnipollo. Brewed by Omnipollo in Stockholm and Toronto, this high booze offering is billed as a “graham cracker chocolate chunk caramel bar stout”. So that’s a thing. At 10.5%, a 473mL can of this stuff is dangerous.

Prodromus is a tarry stout with a creamy tan head. It has a ridiculously sweet aroma with caramel and cocoa notes through the roof. It has a smooth, but very thick mouthfeel, and a flavour that rivals the nose in terms of ridiculous sweetness. The beer tastes almost exactly as advertised, with chocolate and caramel leading the way, and a sweet breadiness that lends the beer a convincing graham cracker base. The finish does have some dark chocolate bitterness, but nowhere near enough to cut through the syrupy sweetness.

This beer is basically obscene. It’s so sweet and so strong that it is really quite cloying. The flavours are deep and accurately described, and the beer is clearly well made, but it’s just too damn much. A digestif ale if ever there was one, this beer should be served with a rich chocolate dessert. I’ve no doubt that many people would enjoy this stuff—perhaps a single 473mL can shared among four people is the right approach—but as a solo drinker, I was left with a real risk of diabetic coma. This was a hard beer to review, because it did exactly what it set out to do, but the result verged on unfinishable.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

KBS

During a recent trip to the ol' US of A, I effected a bold beer swap with the solid and courageous MM. To her went some of my favourite Ontario brews, and my way came some of her preferred American suds. One of those was KBS, a stout flavoured with chocolate and coffee. According to the Founders Brewing Co., of Grand Rapids, Michigan, this 2016 release of KBS is bourbon barrel aged and "is good for everything a flavo[u]red stout ought to be good for." No percentage was listed on the bottle, but KBS was clearly strong (the website told me it was actually 12.4% with 70 IBUs!!!).

Scent-wise, the beer was woody and sweet, with cocoa notes. The flavour was extremely full-bodied and wildly boozy, with notes of oak, chocolate, and java providing an assertive blend. The finish was quite bitter, but not enough to surmount the boozy sweetness that lasted from uncapping to finishing the ale. It had a very thick and syrupy mouthfeel.

 

As someone who spent a little bit of time working in government, I found the lack of explanation of the "KBS" acronym unbelievably frustrating, but I enjoyed the beer all the same. This beer was way too sweet to revisit in the short term, but I'd be glad to sip it again during the winter months. It wasn't my favourite strong stout, but I liked it well enough to revisit. The coffee notes could certainly have been stronger, but this sweet and potent Imperial stout was still pretty decent.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

The Chocolate Manifesto

Chocoholics take note: The Chocolate Manifesto by Barrie, Ontario's Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery is an over-indulgent blast of big booze and chocolatey splendour. Billed as a triple chocolate milk stout, this jumbo special edition ale combines three types of chocolate: shade-grown cacao nibs, roasted cacao powder, and chocolate malt (which is a stretch, as I don't believe it actually has anything to do with chocolate). Sold as a boxed 750mL bottle, this 10% elixir is clearly meant to be shared--be wary of doing what I did, which was drink the whole bottle myself before dinner on a Saturday afternoon. The box and bottle are both extremely busy, even by the wacky standards of Flying Monkeys, and uncommonly text-heavy. There is definitely some interesting stuff if you take the time to read through though. My three favourite gems are the plea to "Save the earth, it's the only planet with chocolate. And beer."; the exaltation that "Passion is such an important ingredient in craft beer, we should include it on the label."; and the admonition to not "mindlessly praise craft beer. Challenge Brewers to innovate."

On to the beer!

This ale is dark brown, with amber highlights. It pours with a fog warning's worth of loose tan head. It has an extremely sweet, chocotastic aroma. There are milk chocolate elements along with chocolate milk elements. As well, under the sugary exterior, there is a slice of cacao bitterness.

Almost like drinking an alcoholic dark chocolate bar, The Manifesto features a thick, syrupy mouthfeel, and a powerfully sweet, slightly bitter flavour that verges on obscene. At 10% alcohol, you'd expect off-the-charts boozy heat, but it is understated to a deadly level. You only really appreciate the amount of fire in this stuff when you reach out to refill your glass and notice a tremor in your pouring hand.

To me, this beer was more novelty than desirable, but that's not to say it wasn't innovative or well made. It's a formidably strong ale with an unapologetic degree of sweetness and chocolate levels that are off the charts. Seriously, with the amount of cacao in this bad boy, I'm surprised it poured at all. I almost expected to have to scoop it out with a ladle. So, to sum up my thoughts, this is a genuinely unique beer. It doesn't skimp on chocolate and delivers exactly what it promised to deliver. That I didn't love it is more a reflection of my beer preferences than any kind of defect. It does bear pointing out though, that without the oodles of chocolate, I'm not convinced that this is a particularly strong standalone stout.

I would be remiss not to mention that The Chocolate Manifesto was gifted to me by my one-of-a-kind brother, who is a real class act. And he's single, ladies!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Craftsman Oatmeal Chocolate Stout

All the way from Blenheim, New Zealand comes Craftsman Oatmeal Chocolate Stout, a tasty offering from Renaissance Brewing Ltd. Craftsman comes in 500mL bottles and contains 4.9% alcohol. It pours a very dark brown--almost black--with a gleam of ruby, and comes topped with a thin but durable tan head.

Unfortunately, the label came off on the way home from the liquor store, so I didn't bother photographing the bottle.

Craftsman has a strong aroma of roasted chocolate, backed with an espresso charge. The flavour is very chocolatey. It definitely leans toward dark, high cacao chocolate. It also features some really delightful cafe mocha notes. There is even a decent hop profile stalking around the finish.

Just like quality chocolate, this stuff manages deft balance between sweet and bitter. I'm not always into chocolatey beers, but this brew works. It's rich and flavourful, but not too sweet.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.