When you were young, did you ever dream of unwrapping a chocolate bar and finding a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory? Do you raid your child’s Halloween candy and steal their mini-Mars bars? Maybe you’re one of those people who get cathartic relief from letting everybody around you know whenever you’re craving chocolate, which is pretty much all the time.
Well, if so, have I got a beer for you! This week for Beer Up North, I give you my take on The Chocolate Manifesto from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery (based in Barrie, Ontario) as part of our continuing look at some of the priciest beers available on LCBO shelves.
I have to admit – I was a little nervous about this one. Every once in a while, Flying Monkeys puts out ‘Special Edition’ strong beers and whatever you imagine them to taste like based on the label, you need to essentially prepare yourself for something twice as robust in flavour. In short, Flying Monkeys doesn’t mess around, which makes spending $12.95 on their premium chocolate milk stout a little daunting, especially when I’m not a big sweets guy to begin with.
But these are the lengths I will go to for the faithful readers of Beer Up North. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to recruit a buddy to help me work through the 750 mL bottle; in this case, someone who is particularly fond of this style, often consuming bottles of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.
In the case of The Chocolate Manifesto, Flying Monkeys actually went one step beyond the double chocolate stout (big surprise), presenting us with a triple at a whopping 10 per cent ABV, while also adding lactose to add a noticeable milky sweetness to the brew.
Aside from the four standard ingredients of beer (water, barley, hops and yeast) and the aforementioned lactose, oats, cacao nibs, and cacao powder were also added.
Flying Monkeys proudly points out on the beer’s packaging that the chocolate elements in the beer are sourced from ChocoSol Traders, a socially and environmentally conscious chocolate producer that was originally founded in Mexico, but is now based out of Toronto.
The result is truly something to behold. As is always firstly required, smelling ‘the smoke’ released upon opening the bottle revealed something reminiscent of a pan of fudge brownies; this is hardly even debatable – if you don’t smell chocolate on this beer, then Quick! Get to the hospital! Something’s happened to your olfactory system.
The taste was also of chocolate, unsurprisingly, but of finer chocolate, like what you might seek out in the chocolate shops of Belgium. My friend and I agreed that the bitterness and acidity of the cacao made it seem that there was a vague underlying taste of cherry, while the booziness reminded me of the brandy-filled chocolates I certainly don’t mind indulging on during the holidays. Although, any bitterness and booziness was certainly smoothened by the milky flavour of the lactose.
The biggest appeal to me was the mouth feel. This is an aspect of beer appreciation that I can’t always interpret when enjoying a beer. Nine times out of 10, the beer in my mouth feels like, well, beer and that’s about as descriptive as I can get.
In this case, though, I found the beer to have a very apparent lightness to it, like I was drinking a tasty chocolate-flavoured beer cloud. Very surprising, as I was expecting something that was going to bog down my palate as though I had just squeezed a bottle of Nestle Quik into my mouth.
As with many strong beers, as good as this beer was, it would’ve been too much for me to drink on my own. Even splitting it with a friend left me grimacing a bit towards the end of the glass, but that’s largely due to my personal tastes and I certainly wouldn’t hold it against Flying Monkeys. As I often recommend, consider bringing one or two other people along on this beer odyssey if you choose to embark.
Another thing I might recommend is to get creative with this beer. Chocolate stouts can be tied into funky meal plans or food tastings, sometimes used to take the place of dessert. If you want a simple idea, do a Google search for chocolate stout floats.
Take a couple photos of your creation against a blurry background of roughly hewn chocolate slabs and a jug of milk and you’ve got the beginnings of a world-class food blog!
The Chocolate Manifesto from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – many bottles available in the main Sault Ste. Marie LCBO, with a few available in Thunder Bay and Sudbury LCBOs.
Cheers!
P.S. It’s that time again to take a week off to recharge the idea bank, so see you in two week’s time!
