Happy Valentine’s Day

It seems that Valentine’s Day is and always has been associated with sweets. Chocolate, candy, desserts, you name it; this is the day for all things sweet. Whether it’s a one-day indulgence, or its women’s inherent sweet tooth (let’s be honest, Valentine’s Day is not about the guys), you have to bring the sweetness on Feb. 14. So this Valentine’s Day, why not offer a sweet beer to your loved one that you can enjoy as well. A bit of booze for the both of you!
The most obvious choices for sweet infused beers would be those that employ some form of chocolate. The sweet, dark goodness of this sinful delight has been touted as an aphrodisiac and a stimulant. Several brewers incorporate chocolate, cocoa, or a related ingredient into their brewing, and the overwhelming choice for this addition is stout. Stout is an ideal vessel for chocolate, as most stouts have aspects of the dark treat already in their flavor profile.
Young’s & Co. brewery offers the classic Double Chocolate Stout, a sweet stout at 5.2 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), which is extremely easy to drink, with hints of milk and dark chocolate. Rogue Ales has Chocolate Stout, which for many is the perfect chocolate beer, with real chocolate blended into the mixture, and a noticeable amount of west coast hops that run underneath the sweetness. Kind of like a spicy, dark cocoa drink, 6% ABV.
By far the best chocolate beer I have ever enjoyed is brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company. Choklat is a 9.5 percent ABV American Double Stout and it is divine. This beer has the most chocolate aroma and taste of any beer I know brewed today. This is dark bittersweet chocolate beer at its best. The extremely limited release and availability of Choklat make this ale all the more prized and amazing.
Another interesting category of beer is Lambic. While the archetypal lambics from Cantillon of Belgium are world class, they tend toward the sour and tart side, and I wouldn’t exactly call them sweet. Other examples of this style are blended with fruit, or at least fruit flavored syrup, and the tartness is balanced out if not completely overridden by the sweetness. Lindeman’s lambic ales are widely available and nearly syrup sweet. Lindemans’ beers are adjusted for taste with 25-28 percent fruit juice, after the initial infusion of whole fruit. The varieties are lambic with cherries (kriek), blackberries (frambroise), peaches (pêche), and black currant (cassis), and the finished beers take on the color of the respective fruit.
Many other styles of beer are quite sweet, and are not chocolate or fruit infused. Brown ales are often akin to sweet bread, while bock can be earthy and sugary. Having shared numerous old ales and barrel aged beers with friends, comments often describe these as thick, sweet, and somewhat syrup-like in nature.
However, if you’re over Valentine’s Day, don’t want to play the corporate holiday game, or are single and pissed about it, there are many great options. How about Rogue Brutal Bitter? De Dolle’s Mad Bitch might work for you. Angry Angel from Big Boss Brewery in Raleigh, NC might be your beer. Bell’s Brewery has Hell Hath No Fury for the troublemaker. In any case, enjoy the brews…Cheers.
Gene’s Haufbrau has at more than 200 beers in bottles or on tap. While they don’t have every beer the Beer Snob writes about, they probably have most. Gene’s is located at 817 Savannah Hwy. 225-GENE. E-mail the Beer Snob at publisher@westof.net.