Innovation Chocolate Stout

Review Date 5/21/2021  By John Staradumsky

Here’s a fun idea: MIX SIX Chocolate & Peanut Butter from Innovation Brewing of Sylva, North Carolina. I picked this up recently when I was in Cherokee, North Carolina. In this six-pack sampler you get two different beers, Innovation Peanut Butter Ale and Innovation Chocolate Stout. The idea is you try each beer separately, then mix them together to get a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sort of a beer.

This immediately grabbed my attention, and the last six-pack they had went straight into my cart. The beer world’s version of build-a-bear (would that be build-a-beer?). You decide.

Innovation says:

The heart wants what the heart wants, and I think for most of us, that is chocolate peanut butter anything! Now add that flavor combination with beer and you have liquid happiness. We packed this box with 3 cans of peanut butter ale and 3 cans of chocolate stout for your drinking pleasure. These brews pay homage to these greatly loved flavors. We could think of no better representation of that love than a big, beautiful heart. As our body's most powerful engine the heart is something to be revered and admired, much like this beer, so enjoy responsibly!

Of the Chocolate Stout in particular they say on the label:

Chocolate might just be the universal love language that we all understand. We brewed this dark, velvety ale with heaps of deep roasted malts and creamy oats to accompany the abundance of chocolate additions.

Innovation Chocolate Stout has an alcohol content of 5.8% by volume and I paid $11.99 for my six-pack. My cans are stamped “Filled 01/05/21” (a day before the Peanut Butter Ale). Chocolate and Crystal 45 malts and oats are listed on the label.

Innovation Chocolate Stout pours to an inky black color with a thick creamy tan head of foam and a nose of dry powdery cocoa. Taking a sip, the beer has rich dark chocolate notes, more of the powdered cocoa and maybe a hint of chocolate pudding. Finishes dry roasty and more-ish.

Mixed with the Chocolate Stout, the beers take on a dark brownish to light black hue with a thick foamy head and a nose of peanuts and chocolate (of course). Sipping, the chocolate hit me first but then the peanuts took over, and mixed they seem a lot like the peanutty middle of a Reese’s cup (which is not quite like peanut butter). The chocolate now seems smoother and the beer really does taste like a Reese’s cup.

Beers on this theme are a dime a dozen these days, but not in a deconstructed sort of way. 4 stars for each of the beers, 4.25 mixed, and an extra half to each for the novel idea.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

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