For as long as I can remember, when people would ask me when college basketball season started, I would reply with 'In early January when football season ends."  However, with the Florida Gator football season having anything but a good year (I now know what it feels like to be a UM or FSU fan), I was happy to see the Gator basketball team play OSU on TV a couple of weeks ago.  Since I view basketball as a winter sport, I felt the need to drink a winter beer while watching it.

 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout sounded interesting enough to me.  I have always enjoyed the other Brooklyn Brewery products I have had in the past. This beer is one of their winter seasonal selections.  I must confess, though, that I am not a chocolate person, except for the occasional piece of dark chocolate or a good cookie. 

 The beer pours with a lovely dark color and a creamy brown head.  It has all the typical aromas of a stout with a noticeable aroma of chocolate.  This is a big beer with tons of flavors going on in the mouth. After taking one sip I realized it needed to go with food and got a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with it.  I was also happy to see that chocolate was not the only flavor in the beer; it came and went as a way to complement the other dark malts in the beer.  I was shocked when I noticed this beer has a high alcohol content of 10%.  The beer is so well made with so many flavors that it hides the alcohol perfectly.  This is a perfect beer for a winter day.  If I could be sitting on the front porch of a cabin watching the snow fall, this is the beer I want in my hands.  It is also a beer that will pair extremely well with a good full bodied cigar.

 While winter may not be here yet, I am glad this beer and NCAA basketball are.

Keep your glasses half full,

Evan

 Beer blogger Evan Kaye is the store manager of our (Northlake Blvd) Palm Beach Gardens store.