DuClaw, Naked Fish Raspberry Chocolate Porter

Here is one of the newest brews to grace our line up at White Horse Wine and Spirits. This brewery just started to come in to our fine state of New Jersey. Unlike other breweries who trickle in with a few beers to start with, DuClaw has been hot and heavy with new beers almost every few weeks. They quickly hit a home run with our customers with their outrageous Sweet Baby Jesus, a chocolate peanut butter stout, that everybody seems to love! Given the popularity (and the fact that my wife goes nuts for chocolate and raspberries) I decided to try this latest brew.

The interesting facts about this beer are (if you look at the fine print on the six pack) that it is also brewed with coffee (which adds extra points in my book). It is also a session beer clocking in at only 4.6% alcohol, which is odd considering most brewers making a coffee stout or a chocolate stout would opt for a heavy ABV (perhaps 7 to 9 percent).

When I first opened this beer, I was hit by a nice sweet raspberry aromas followed by just a hint of dark chocolate. The opening blast gave me a good opinion of this beer from the start. I then poured it into a pint glass to see how the aromas developed. It lost a little bit of the intensity in the glass. The mouthfeel of this beer is very light (almost Guiness like). A very easy drinking beer that was quickly finished and replaced by another throughout the night.

Overall, this is a really easy drinking beer that has the aromas to satisfy and the body to go down very smooth. A very good combo of raspberry and chocolate. If your looking for a rich, full stout with a nice bitter finish, look somewhere else. However, if your looking for a great kickback beer that pairs well with chocolates for lets Valentines Day, then this is your beer! Cheers!

Personal Rating: 6/10
Style Rating: 8/10
Wanna try it now? Order it online at: https://www.whitehorsewine.com/proddetail.php?prod=641455110298 

Terrapin Beer Company | Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout

Terrapin Beer Company out of Athens, Georgia brings us a winter seasonal treat that for many of us is truly a favorite.  Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout is another sweet stout offering.  What sets this one apart from other brews such as Riverhorse Milk Stout and Southern Tier Double Milk Stout is that Moo-Hoo, as the name suggests, is brewed with chocolate nibs.  (Get it?  Moo-Hoo...Yoo-Hoo?)  Terrapin uses Olive and Sinclare gourmet chocolate nibs and shells along with lactose sugars to achieve a truly tasty treat.

Before we get into the beer review, just a quick word on Terrapin.  If you are a fan of Terrapin products you may have noticed for quite a while that the line has been pretty much non-existent in our area for quite some time.  Terrapin has been going through some financial issues that have actually led to part-ownership rights being sold to, cough cough, Miller-Coors brewing company.  A division of the mega brewer named Tenth and Blake Beer Co. has purchased less than 25% ownership of Terrapin.  This sounds bad but actually it will be quite beneficial to the growth of Terrapin.  Under the guidelines they will remain an independent brewery and will be bailed out of an all-encompassing debt that has kept them from brewing many of their specialty beers as well as over-all distribution.  A vast majority of Terrapin's production in recent months has only made it to the localized region around the brewery.  Now that they have been bailed out they will be able to expand their production capacity and hopefully their beers will be more readily available in our area.

 Ok, lets get started...Moo-Hoo (Poured into a Sam Adams perfect pint glass from a 12oz bottle), as you would expect from any quality stout pours a jet black color with half finger brownish head that quickly disappeared with a decent hazing left behind.  Nothing too special here but there is a small plume of bubbles still rising up in the center of my glass after about ten minutes...this is a good sign.  Good creamy lacing creeps down the sides of the glass.

The aromas rising trough the middle of my glass are of strong coffee and dark cocoa.  There is no alcohol content listed on the bottle, but it is slightly detectible in the smell.  Chocolatey roasted malts are also at the forefront here.  Just an over-all very pleasant aroma.

The taste is of sweet dark chocolate and robust coffee.  The lactose sugars and cocoa nibs blend together well with one offsetting the other to provide a balanced taste...not too sweet yet not too bitter either.  This works quite well.  The alcohol is detectible but not over-powering.  The roasted malts are there but are somewhat hidden behind the cocoa and the sugar.  Decent carbonation remains even though the head has completely disappeared by now.  With the mouth feel being on the lighter side, this is an easy-drinker compared to many other stouts.  This is a great stout that I always look forward to this time of year...and now that Terrapin has expansion plans I wont have to worry about not ever seeing it again.  Pick this one up before it's gone for another year.  Personal 8.5/10 and style 8/10.