Holiday-seasoned mocha stout brings chocolate-chipped molasses malting to caramel-burnt toffee-cocoa-coconut restraint, creme brulee sweetness and compost-wafted winter spicing. Dark chocolate, coffee and licorice notions crowd the back.

Nearly unassuming celebratory (winter 2013) dark ale salutes local dry-beaned Ocean Coffee Roasters in subtle rum-barreled wood aging. Oats-toasted brown chocolate sweetness contrasts dry-hopped Baker’s chocolate bittering alongside evenly spread roasted coffee adjunct. Distant vanilla, cocoa powder, black cherry puree and peppercorn illusions waver.

Astonishingly rich and creamy Imperial Stout contrasts bolstered creme brulee sweetness with hop-roasted vanilla bean bittering and chocolate-smoked black patent malting. Raw molasses, espresso, dark cocoa and French vanilla coffee illusions deepen its molten mocha magnitude. Noticeably bitterer than sweet-toothed caramel-burnt Southern Tier Creme Brulee.

Absolutely mellow milked coffee sweetness pervades bitter cocoa-dried black chocolate malting and oats-roasted hop char. Endearing ground coffee midst serenaded by fudgy creme brulee, espresso, molasses and vanilla creaming as well as dried-fruited black cherry blackberry and raspberry snips.

Expansive ultra-Imperial dark ale reminiscent of piney-fruited mocha-malted Cascadian Dark (a.k.a. Black IPA). Like a chocolate fondue, its black cherry-pureed blackberry, raspberry and strawberry sweetness juxtaposes the rich deep-roasted mocha landscape. In the backdrop, oats-charred hop bittering contrasts chocolate truffle sugaring. Tertiary molasses, vanilla, soy and coffee undertones add to the luxurious mix.

Richly creamed milk stout collides luscious chocolate eclair sweetness and chocolate liqueur syruping with bruised black cherry tartness. Blackened hop char brings tarry bittering to the fore. Ancillary coffee roast burrows thru the fudgy vanilla midst to its dashing cherry cordial finish. Excellent dessert beer for chocolate cake lovers.

On tap at Shepherd & Knucklehead, dramatic mocha-doused Christmas seasonal (2013) picks up dry hop-charred bittering to deepen dark chocolate-milked coffee bean assertion over soft-watered base. Molasses sinew drapes ancillary vanilla, anise and walnut illusions. Dryer than most stylistic competitors.

Bountiful bourbon-barreled Imperial Stout allows hop-charred Peruvian coffee roast to embitter molasses-smoked dark chocolate segue, cocoa-buttered vanilla creaming and sour cherry uprising. Sweet bourbon, burgundy and whiskey illusions heighten mocha theme. In deep recess, oaken grape tannins gain strength over tertiary espresso, cocoa nibs, anise and raisin undertones.

Industrious flavor profile hybridized by rauchbier-like peated malt smokiness while anchored by dark-roasted chocolate and coffee bittering. Chocolate-chipped cookie dough center picks up molasses sugaring, depleting some of the early beechwood-like campfire sear and prolific Band-aid waft by the bold mocha finish.  

Eccentric dark ale aged in oak with ‘coffee, rhubarb, herbs and spices’ wavers wildly and never finds solid ground. Soy-sauced coffee souring turns to muck as dry burgundy-port wining flattens above nitro-like charcoal soothe. Vinous white grape tannins and orange-candied tartness receives saffron-spiced dusting.

Curious Brazilian stout (a.k.a Ithaca) nearly drowns out stylistic brown chocolate creaming with vinous purple grape souring and dry burgundy-wined plum, fig and date uprising. Warbly coffee-burnt molasses undertones drape sharp hop-spiced sensation. Soy-milked snip and charcoal blip make cameos. But expansive flavor profile seems murky.