Arcadia Brewing Co. is a Battle Creek brewery specializing in British-style ales. I don't know that their Cocoa Loco stout is really "British-style," but it is an interpretation and expansion that is well worth drinking! I picked up a single at Arbor Farms for $2.79, and it is fairly widely available.
This deep, dark, brown-black stout pours quietly, with a fairly thin, reluctant, caramel-colored head that dissipates quickly. The aroma is roasty-burnt, with a strong blackstrap molasses presence mixing with coffee, all against a background of chocolate that promises some pretty glorious flavor. There’s a touch of alcohol aroma, too, in this 7.0% ABV stout.
The brew is assertively bitter followed quickly by a wash of chocolate. There is plenty of coffee here, roasted to dark, fragrant perfection. The carbonation is fairly small, a bit more noticeable than I thought it would be when the beer poured so quietly, but it’s no distraction. This beer has a medium body, less heavy than I expected.
In the finish, there’s a bit of alcohol and associated warming. Later in the long, pleasant finish, a vanilla note springs forward, superb and worth waiting for. It took considerable time to form, so pause awhile over this brew. As it warms, it doesn’t sweeten much, and the flavors continue to deepen. This is an unabashedly burnt-roasted, coffee-inflected, chocolaty beer.
Cocoa Loco is an outstanding, big beer, completely worth lingering over. It would make a wonderful after-dinner drink. It’s made with chocolate malts, cocoa nibs, and 63% cacao bittersweet chocolate, as well as molasses and lactose. Arcadia describes it as a “triple chocolate milk stout.” Well said indeed.
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