Highland Brewing Company Black Watch Double Chocolate Milk Stout
What the brewers say
“Stout brewed with cacao nibs with natural flavor added.”
What our panel thought
Aroma: “Super chocolate presence—sweet, bitter, and dark—on the nose, with some evident roast malt, but it’s very faint. The malt is roasty, but has a slight buttery pie crust character and sits in the back. This beer smells like a chocolate bar.”
Flavor: “The initial flavor comes across as a very fine dark chocolate, with some level of nuttiness from pecans. Some creamy sweetness cuts through the dark chocolate and roast, lending some complexity. It’s very rich with the cocoa and deep-roasted coffee notes, and the creaminess lifts the flavor. There are also some notes of plums and cherries. The toasted malts carry through the finish, providing medium-full body and lasting sweetness.”
Overall: “The chocolate really dominates, and it’s somewhat difficult to pick out other nuanced flavor profiles. It makes for incredibly smooth drinking—it’s rich, sweet, and decadent. The body does a good job of holding up the chocolate, and it’s one of the better examples I’ve had in a stout.”
