Sherpa's Raspberry Truffle
Forager Brewing Company

 

a barrel aged stout with raspberries and chocolate, designed to taste like a raspberry truffle, and it sure does, man this is good! the raspberry is amazingly fresh, and provides a needed tartness in here, but also comes through sweet and jammy too, they must have used a ton of fruit to get it to come through such an enormous base beer so vibrantly. thats the real takeaway for me here, awesome fruit freshness and naturalness in a huge stout, no candy sweetness or syrupy aspects to it at all. on the chocolate side, for me anyway, i get a lot more of the dry bakers cocoa powder on the outside of the truffle than i do the milk or dark chocolate it is comprised of, i like the dusty bitterness, and think its needed to balance some of the sweet. there has to be vanilla in here too, not just from the whiskey barrels, its awesome with the dark roasty grain and gives this a real desserty quality without making it overly sugary. raspberry tartness and cocoa bitterness in the finish, just an awesomely rich flavor complexion and an epic beer. i still think i like the coffee maple edition better, but this is one special series of beers they have going here!