Ah, there you are dear reader. Yes, as I was just telling you, I was sitting at Taco Mac having just finished a glass of the wonderful Port Santa’s Little Helper when I moved on to the next conquest on my beer list: Rogue Double Chocolate Stout. It was a Friday night and I had waited a little over 30 minutes to get a table, a spot at the bar being entirely an impossible request it seemed. Taco Macs always seem to be busy on weekends and game days; my local Canton location seems busier than most.

At any rate, I had come looking for four beers in particular I had seen on the Canton Taco Mac website, and I was lucky; along with the aforementioned two brews and Brooklyn Blast! Double IPA three of them had actually been on tap.

Thing was, the Santa’s Little Helper was such a wonderfully roasty and truly amazing example of a stout (imperial stout actually) that I had feared the Rogue brew (also an imperial stout) would suffer in comparison. Rogue Double Chocolate Stout, while certainly potent at 8% alcohol by volume, was not as big a beer as the Port stout. That’s more a compliment to the Port beer than a slight to the Rogue one, of course, since Rogue makes a truly extensive line of amazing beers.

Then too, Rogue Chocolate Stout, the model upon which the Rogue Double Chocolate Stout is based, is one of my favorite beers in their lineup. So I should have expected something spectacular, and in truth that is what I got. The incredible thing, though, was the way that the Rogue Double Chocolate Stout hit me in a completely different way from the Santa’s Little Helper.

While the latter emphasized an almost brutal roastiness, the Rogue Double Chocolate Stout instead wallops the palate with a truly sinful and decadent chocolate character. Indeed, this beer absolutely screams rich dark chocolate, in the nose, in the palate, in the finish.

Ingredients from Rogue:

C120, Chocolate and Great Western 2-Row Malts; Cascade and Perle Hops, Rolled Oats, Honey, Natural Chocolate Flavoring, Rogue's Pacman Yeast and Free Range Coastal Water

My mug arrived a jet black color with almost no head formation and a simply delightful powdered cocoa nose. Taking a sip the beer has a thick, viscous texture, and almost no carbonation, but that only reinforces a liquid chocolate suggestion. The chocolate really dominates here, and the beer is a lot like a melted liquid dark chocolate bar. It’s not overly roasty, which could broaden its appeal, and there’s just a bit of hops in the finish to dry along with the alcohol. By Rogue standards, though, hops are very lightly stated here.

Other beers suggest chocolate, but this is the real deal. It was a very reasonable $7 for a full pint, or 20 ounce mug in my case. If you think you don’t like beer but you love chocolate, you need to try Rogue Double Chocolate Stout. Buy a bottle for the chocolate lover on your gift list, but make sure to grab one for yourself, too. You can thank me later.

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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