… an Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence stout. A friend/co-worker/fellow NASA beer geek hooked me up with this one.

Just looking at the bottle makes me want to drink it. A 750 ml corked bottle with lots of chocolate coloring on a very classy label — but then Ommegang is a very classy brewery. Arguably there is no American brewery more like a Trappist brewery than Ommegang.

This beer is a chocolate stout, similar to the far more ubiquitous Youngs Double Chocolate Stout. It pours a dark brown, almost black, but when I hold it up to the light I can see a bit of red. A finger of tan/brown foam that leaves some nice lacing behind. Aroma is roasted malts and coffee, pretty smokey, with a bit of raisin and some noticable alcohol. Taste is both sweet and bitter; roasted malt, coffee, chocolate, maybe a hint of licorice.

My conclusion: very good, but perhaps not quite as good as the Youngs. The smokeyness is a bit overpowering and the chocolate not prominent enough. Still, it’s pretty darn good. I gave it a 3.8 on ratebeer.com; its average score was 3.6 (compared to Youngs’ average score of 3.78).