Four Scoops – Mocha Chip
Rockingham Brewing Company

 

So, this is one of four different variations on a base "cream stout" Rockingham put out recently in a brilliant format: the mixed four-pack! The other three variants are Pistachio, Peanut Butter Swirl, and Vanilla. I enjoyed the peanut butter one for NBW this past weekend, and I'm moving on to the Mocha Chip version, which I have some high expectations for. This brewery is pretty damn underrated, and this concept is just genius. The PB version was good but had a few misgivings, mostly in the body/mouthfeel department, so I'm hoping that such issues only existed due to that adjunct and that they are nigh-insignificant here.

Pours a pitch-black liquid in my glass, building up a couple fingers of decent looking foam that is, unsurprisingly, mocha colored! Whaddya know? Joking aside, this is a decent-looking beer, though I can see that it's really more of a deep, dark brown if I look at it from above. There isn't any lacing or much in the way of legs to speak of here, so I'm just gonna go ahead and give it a moderately-good/decent rating that should carry through to the other beers in the four-pack.

The nose is fantastic; it really gives off the whole "mocha ice cream" feeling right away with very little in the way of subtlety. I don't believe, by the way, that nuance is super necessary when it comes to stuff like this that is trying to achieve a specific flavor. However, I do think that talking about what would usually be more underlying aspects of traditional (non-adjunct-driven, I should say) beers is more challenging with flavored stouts and their ilk. I will say, though, that if you like the idea of a mocha ice cream flavored stout, this is highly-likely to tick some major boxes for you.

The flavor begins with a blast of cold-brew/espresso type flavor; kind of a roasty and nutty profile that brings with it some light creaminess. The mid-palate has dusty Belgian chocolate and a hint of sweetness that follows through to a clean, robust finish. I do think the feel here is a slight improvement on the peanut butter variant, for what it's worth, and I recommend this to everyone who likes the idea of an ice cream stout, particularly a chocolate/coffee specific flavor. It isn't overly flavorful or sweet, but the treatment here is almost exactly what you'd want from a stout that is just over 5% ABV. It's not too heavy or too cloying or too... anything, really. Just well-balanced, with a very good concept taken to its logical and well-rendered final point.