Great love stories start over beer. Now, whether it’s a love story with another person or the beer in your hand is up to you (and up to said other person). With Valentine’s Day on nigh, here are six chocolate beers that are decidedly better than a forgettable box of chocolate candy. Whether you’re trying to foster romance or enjoying your own company, these brews will give you all the feels.
Dragon’s Milk Reserve With Coffee & Chocolate
New Holland Brewing Company (Holland, Michigan)
This is why nerds are considered sexy. Dragon’s milk, a barrel-aged stout with imagery straight out of Game of Thrones, has become this wild vehicle for New Holland to experiment with ingredients like chai spice and chiles. This 11% ABV hammer, which debuted last year, is a dense mix of roast coffee and creamy vanilla. As it warms, the sweet kiss of bourbon-y caramel will make you long for a rug and a fireplace. Love Tester: Wild Thing
Chocolate Ale With Raspberry
Boulevard Brewing Company (Kansas City, MO)
A classic dessert combination of chocolate cake and a raspberry drizzle is reimagined in the fourth iteration of a collaboration between the Kansas City brewery and Christopher Elbow – a local chocolatier and ice cream maker. A big punch of raspberry in the nose gives way to earthiness from cocoa nibs before a sweet berry finish. But like most relationships, this one mellows the longer you sit with it. The raspberry turns slightly tart and the chocolate provides a rich, deep baseline. Love Tester: Flirtatious
Black Chocolate Stout
Brooklyn Brewing Company (Brooklyn, NY)
Sometimes the love of your life has been sitting in front of you all along. Case in point: the Brooklyn Brewing Company has been making Black Chocolate Stout since 1994. This brew is a long-term commitment at 10% ABV. It’s dark as all get out, super malty (it’s a blend of six different malts) and hoppy on the back nine. The brewery suggests making an ice cream float vanilla ice cream and spiced Mexican chocolate; just know that road ends in a nap. BCS gets better with age, so consider buying a second bottle for a sequel in 2017. Love Tester: Naughty
Sexual Chocolate
Foothills Brewing Company (Winston-Salem, NC)
Wild stuff happens when you put out a cocoa-infused Imperial Stout that clocks in at 9.75% ABV. Folks camp out all night for the annual release of the inky brew that’s all chocolate and coffee and mysterious just like the new guy at the office. If you can’t feel sexy with a 22-ounce bottle of this dynamo with dark chocolate and molasses notes and a groovy 70s’ lady cartoon on the label, you should put your shoes on the mat and call it a career. Love Tester: Hot Stuff
Chocolate Stout
Rogue Ales (Newport, OR)
Rogue is unconventional and their Chocolate Stout, which debuted for Valentine’s Day in 2001, is no exception. Imagine an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate truffle got together in a bed that had been strewn with hops. The brew smells like the inside of pain au chocolat and has the right bit of hop bitterness to match the malty sweetness in the body. Love Tester: Smoldering
Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout
Odell Brewing Company (Fort Collins, CO)
Sweet and creamy – it’s made with lactose (milk sugar) and milk chocolate – Lugene is adult drinking chocolate with a charming backstory. It’s named for the farmer who feeds Odell’s spent grains to his cows. The dark brown stout has some espresso-like characteristics from roasted grains, which means that it is sweet without being cloying and eminently drinkable even at 8.5% ABV. Love Tester: Kissable