Beer Review: Chocolate Confidential (Sudwerk Brewing Co.)
We’re back at it, bright and early this morning (7AM early). Which is pretty sticking bright and early when your co-worker tells you that you’re doing karaoke at the Stadium’s Club, and you end up closing the place down at 2AM. (For those curious, I did a heart wrenching rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time”, it brought a tear to many a rough neck and biker in the bar, and if Brittney Spears herself would have heard it she’d pack up her bags and never sing it again, leaving my version the last known utterance of the song.)
Continuing the trend of beers from the beer mail trade I did with a guy from Eureka California, I present Chocolate Confidential by Sudwerk Brewing Co. Sudwerk Brewing Co. is a micro brewery from Davis California. They have 367 unique beers on Untappd with a global rating of 3.64 (as of 2.21.20). Their description on Untappd is: “Sudwerk Brewing Co. has been crafting some of the finest German style lagers found in California since 1989. In 2013, the grandson of one of the original founders and his good friend took over operations of the iconic California brewery. They both carry a deep passion for the brand and the beers brewed by Sudwerk. Sudwerk has historically been known for brewing traditional German beers, however the company mission is now focused on redefining the American lager. Rooted in traditional German brewing practices mixed with an innovative Californian twist, Sudwerk is focused on creating the highest quality craft lagers known to man. The hybrid beer styles can best be described as West Coast craft lagers. We hope you join us on our path as we tirelessly work at perfecting our craft and sharing it with you.”
Yesterday I did the beer review of Sunshine and Opportunity. Which was a delicious beer and perfect for Wednesday’s gorgeous weather here in Central PA. Now, we’re moving on to some darker stuff (a reflection of the cooler weather and windyness we got on Thursday).
(So I had written the above before getting my youngest daughter to school yesterday – Friday the 2.21.20, but afterwards, with my other two daughters sick, I didn’t get time to finish it before work, and then after work I was busy, so I am now finishing this up on the 22nd before work, fingers crossed. Its not so much the writing that takes time – which it does – its the marketing I have to do right afterwards, and the linking and all the small edit stuff that goes unnoticed when everything seems to go [seemingly] well.)
So lets tackle this delicious Chocolate Baltic Porter.
Beer: Chocolate Confidential
Brewery: Sudwerk Brewing Co.
Style: Porter – Baltic Imperial / Double
ABV: 10%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Cacao nibs, vanilla and espresso beans from Chocolate Fish Roastery
As you can see in this amazing Bengals stein, the color from this is pure dark black. Motor oil, Razor Ramone hair color, black like the souls of the Bengals enemies (the dreaded Steelers), etc, etc. There’s a nice thick creamy brown head to this that stays consistent. Good lacing, good bubbles, good color, everything is a check so far.
Aroma is like opening a coffee and pastry shop door. Very heavy chocolate right out of the gate with a bready, pastry aroma behind it. Then it builds into this coffee roasting smell. The chocolate and coffee kind of swirl together giving it a decadent smell, especially with the vanilla adding a layer of sweetness to the aroma. There is a lot of subtle complexities with this that all work well in unison with each other, the chocolate and caco nibs, the vanilla, the espresso beans, all forming together to make a delicious chocolate donut like pastry porter (double baltic porter).
This is a boozy, heavy, thick, full bodied, chocolate donut, chocolate pastry, coffee dunked donut delicious monstrosity (and I use all those terms in the best and nicest of ways). This is toasted and roasted malts, its bready, its heavy, its full of chocolate and coffee flavor. Its like taking a donut and dunking it into coffee and eating it. Like the scene from Home Alone where the piece of donut falls on the phone and nobody notices it while the guy is eating listening.
This. This scene. Its like eating that donut, after it was dunked in coffee. And if that donut was half as good as this beer, you better damn well believe he takes that piece of donut and eats it afterwards. This is a smooth beer, there’s no hop bitterness, but there is a boozy heavyness to it and comes with a slight bite. The vanilla mostly smooths that out though, so the boozyness comes more as heavy than as a true bite or bitterness. Nothing overpowers anything else either, which is always nice in a complex beer like this. Its nice when one ingredient doesn’t overpower other ingredients to the point of not being able to taste them. Here its all a nice even blend, even chocolate, even coffee, even pastry. It just adds up to a sum of a great, fantastic, full, heavy, thick dark beer that is super tasty. Makes me sad I only got one of these and its gone already.
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 2.22.20, it was 3.81 yesterday when I started this on 2.21.20).
Now, let us discuss this beautiful stein too. Bengals,Who Dey, the team of the future…. with the first pick of the draft this year, and possibly Joe Burrow as the future of the franchise. Unless… he Elways / Eli Manning’s his way out of Cincinnati which is looking like a possibility. Sigh. Fingers crossed he ends up being as good as he was last year with LSU. I’ll just be happy going 5-11 this upcoming season. Maybe Cincinnati will be the first team to go from the NFL to the XFL?
This was the second of the California beer mail beers. I still have 8 more to go. Mostly all Sours, Saisons, and IPAs (I believe one Strong Ale), so I might not review everyone of them, but will do most of them. At least the interesting ones anyway. Also still have a long list of other beer reviews I’ve started and haven’t finished yet, so there’s plenty to look forward to. So please stick around and check out the site!
Thanks and cheers everyone! Have a happy 2.22.20!
-B. Kline
