Vanilla Chai Chocolate Stout
Amber's Brewing Co.

Beer Geek Stats
From:
Amber's Brewing Co.
 
Alberta, Canada
Style:
Pastry Stout
ABV:
5%
Score:
+7 ratings needed
Avg:
3.89 | pDev: 7.46%
Ratings:
3 | reviews: 1
Status:
Retired
Rated:
May 07, 2017
Added:
Feb 17, 2012
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  0
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
 
Rated: 3.9 by Gkruszewski from New York

May 07, 2017
 
Rated: 4.25 by Converge from Canada (AB)

May 25, 2012
Photo of biboergosum
Reviewed by biboergosum from Canada (AB)

3.53/5  rDev -9.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5
A collaboration between Amber's and the Cha Island Tea Company, with the base being the Kenmount Road Chocolate Stout, on tap at Wunderbar.

This beer appears a solid black, with slight cola-tinged basal edges, and one fat finger of tight foamy chocolate milk head, which leaves an undulating array of mountainous lace around the glass as it duly settles.

It smells of earthy, spicy leafiness, atop a slight dry chocolate malt, and a mild orchard fruitiness. The taste is bready chocolate malt, kind of grainy, with more earthy, leafy musty notes repping the tea quite well. Any hops are either nonexistent or too mild to poke out through the organic onslaught of the chai 'adjuncts'...

The bubbles are fairly restrained, with a flat metallic edge, the body medium weight, and just a smidgeon of cloyingness mars the otherwise decent smoothness. It finishes off-dry, the chocolate going a bit the way of the coffee, some chewy tea grounds and weird tartness rounding things out.

Tea or chai or the like are difficult things to have an impact on a beer, let alone a hefty stout. This must be the exception that proves the rule - though the effect has its pluses and its minuses, and the whole is barely more than the sum of its parts.
Feb 17, 2012