Beerlicious » St-Ambroise

St Ambroise Stout with chocolate

Stuart — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:04:53 +0000

Accepting the gauntlet of extensive testing – because, you know, we are willing to “take one for the team”, and Valentine’s Day made it appropriate – we tried various pairings with a Canadian Stout.

The stout is warm and rich, with a dark coffee bitterness. How does it stand up to chocolate?

First up: Moser Roth 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate. Really not a good combo. It washes out the flavour of the beer, making it taste watery, and bringing out the bitterness in the chocolate.

Second: Moser Roth Orange Almond. Much better. Brings out a really rich creaminess in the beer.

Third: Terry’s Dark Chocolate Orange. Not sure about this one. There is a smooth richness there, and a subtle sweetness, but the orange flavour almost disappears.

Fourth: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. Oh my. I think I heard an angelic chorus. Perfection. The beer takes some of the sweetness away from the chocolate; the chocolate-beer combination tastes like hot chocolate, with a rich velvet texture. Words fail me in describing how wonderful this combination is – but it wouldn’t surprise me if it brought about world peace.

One final note – please make sure you allow the beer to come to a “lightly chilled”, rather than “ice cold” temperature, or you may be disappointed

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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout + Dark Chocolate

Danner — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:51:22 +0000

Just to prove the veracity of an earlier comment, I paired up a bottle of the St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout with a few nubs of dark chocolate (72%, “Endangered Species” brand from Whole Foods, which helps support efforts to preserve endangered species). I think the chocolate here may have actually been just a tad too bitter, but overall this was an enjoyable match up. I’m sure it would be worth exploring oatmeal stouts paired with sweeter milk chocolate, probably Cadbury’s.

St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout + Philly Cheese Steak

Danner — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:39:48 +0000

Meh. While malty beers generally may go well with red meat, I find stouts very hard to pair outside of the dessert world. They typically go great with stuff like chocolate and cheesecake. But with main courses, not so much. Stout + Philly cheese steak is actually pretty rank. It may be a challenge peculiar to the contributions of very dark roasted barley.

The good news out of this is that Alabama apparently has a new stout on the block, St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. I hadn’t previously heard anything about it but I stumbled upon it at Bruno’s at The Summit on my way home. T’ain’t cheap at $10+ for a four pack, but it is most excellent. The roasted malts jump out, smack you over the head, and then ruthlessly mock you.

They also had a pale ale from the same brewery but one expensive beer buy was all I was up for at the time, so it will have to wait for another day.