Chocolate Factory Meltdown Milk Chocolate
Hugger Mugger Brewing Company

500ml bottle that has been cellaring since Christmas, 2024 poured into a Treehouse Teku glass. [Review edited because I erroneously listed this as having been in the cellar since 2023]

Appearance: Fairly dark, like a cola beverage. Light, noticeable carbonation. Interesting bubbles are seemingly suspended in the glass as opposed to rising to the top and releasing the gas into the air. Very interesting looking beverage. Finally held up the glass to the light and I probably wouldn't be able to tell whether this was a root beer, cola, or a stout just by looking at it.

Aroma: For 8.3% there is no heat on the nose. Strong stout aroma, no chocolate to be found. Perhaps the time in the cellar subdued that aspect. Nothing real special; no off scents. After sipping for a bit the nose is falling off.

Taste: Mmm. Very smooth. There's chocolate in the taste. Not quite bitter. It's almost there, but not. Not really sweet. Pretty solid. At 8.3% I'm pretty sure that I could crush this if I wanted. I kind of want to drink this one quickly. I'm glad that this doesn't have a bitter aftertaste as that would really make this hard to drink; I'm not quite sure what about the look and smell of this keeps making me expect it to finish bitter. It's a pleasant surprise

Mouthfeel: Good. Sort of light, especially for the abv. Good carbonation. The carbonation helps out the mouthfeel here nicely. It actually almost feels like drinking a soda. I would prefer if this had more of a syrup feel as opposed to the soda feel. It's not bad, it could be better though. I suppose it could also be a lot worse

Overall: I'm enjoying this beer but I'm also having mixed feelings about it. It's not bad by any means, but it could be a lot better. I would certainly drink this again but I don't think I would purchase it. The pros are a relatively smooth mouthfeel and smooth taste; the cons are a thin mouthfeel and muted aroma. Overall this is just okay to me. I suppose that I should give this another try when it's closer to the bottling date. I'm not really getting 'chocolate factory meltdown' but maybe that was my fault; maybe it is the fault of the beer itself. I wouldn't know.

 

Smooth mouth feel.
Chocolate flavor very prevalent but not overpowering.
Dense flavor profile.
There is no hint of the acetal flavor common with higher gravity beers.

Pure liquid decedence! A desert in a glass, Lactose milk sugar is added to the boil and rum steeped organic cacao nibs added twice.(fermentation and conditioning) giving this stout a decisively delicousness that makes this a true desert beer!