Chocolate and beer

Chocolate beer? Doesn't sound like a great idea, right?

But Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout does it right. When I was planning my trip to New York City, scoring some was a priority. I did just that at the frumpy-fabulous New Beer Distributors. Snagging a four-pack was a coup because the stout is a seasonal winter brew. I wasn't sure I would be able to find it in May. When I saw it on the tightly packed shelf, I greedily grabbed it.

This beer is for the greedy. It's over-the-top indulgent. It pours a jet-black with a small, frothy head. It's technically a Russian Imperial Stout and smells like one with a rich malty aroma that has a bite from the hops and high alcohol content.

On the first sip, the beer coats the tongue and has a weighty feel in the mouth. It has a nice hoppy bite up front that melts away into the rich malts. There definitely is a chocolate hint -- from the chocolate malted barley used in the brewing process. But the chocolate taste is fairly subtle. It's more of an allusion. It's not overpowering or syrupy.

In short, the chocolate fits. It works. Beautifully. So well, in fact, that Black Chocolate Stout easily takes a spot in my top-three stouts.

There's only one problem: I wish I would have brought back more than four bottles.


The details:
Name: Black Chocolate Stout
Brewer: Brooklyn Brewery
Beer Advocate rank: NR
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Alcohol: 10.1 percent
Cost: $9.75 for a four-pack
My Grade: A
Skinny: It's not as chocolate-tasting as it sounds, but it is just as indulgent as its name suggests. This beer is in my top three stouts -- along with the Abyss and Old Rasputin. It's robust and rich. The 10-percent alcohol doesn't hurt its case either. A really nice drinking experience.

Let's hear it for New York

My recent trip to New York City made me look at beer with an "Empire State of Mind." Like with food, art and theater, New York knows how to do beer right.

The best beer experiences from the trip:

5. Drinking Peroni at Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy. The pizza, of course, was better than the beer. But if you're crunching an old-school Margherita, drinking anything but Peroni would be blasphemy.

4. Drinking Hoegaarden at the White Horse Tavern in the West Village. At this bar where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, the beer selection isn't great. But Hoegaarden was a nice find. And our server happened to be a native Nebraskan.

3. Drinking Green Flash West Coast IPA at the Blind Tiger in the West Village. The bar had lots of good craft beers. They advertised having Dogfish Head on tap, but they didn't when I walked in. Lots of Rogue, which is cool. But the Green Flash was a nice hoppy treat on a sunny NYC day. The bar is cool with 30-some craft brews on tap daily.

2. Drinking Three Floyds Dreadnaught IPA at the Pony Bar, three blocks west of Times Square. The Pony Bar is awesome -- young, professional drinkers crammed into a small but classy bar. And beers are $5. That's a sweet value that close to Times Square. Plus Dreadnaught checks in at No. 30 on Beer Advocate's Top 100 list, so that was a nice find. The Pony is best bar I've ever been to in New York City.

1. Buying a bunch of hard-to-find beers at New Beer Distributors in NoHo. The warehouse-like beer store near Little Italy and Chinatown was dark and dingy. But it was full of brews you can't score in the Midwest. My haul included the much-sought-after Fantome Saison, the awesome Brooklyn Brewy Black Chocolate Stout, said Green Flash IPA and a Young's Double Chocolate stout. The only drawback: My suitcase was really heavy on the way back. Had I had my car, I'd probably have bought the place out.

The worst experience? The $10 Miller Lite at Yankee Stadium.