Beer: Achocolypse Brewery: Prescott Brewing Co. Style: Porter ABV: 5.6 percent
Hello, chocolate! White and milk chocolate do a sweet dance in the nose before subtler notes of weak coffee and some sour grain become apparent. There's not a ton of depth to the aroma, but it's very sweet and smooth. In the glass, the brew looks like cola, sporting the deep brown of tree bark with enough clarity to let some amber-tinged light through. Atop sits a tiny khaki-colored layer of film that becomes a thin ring. A fantastic flavor begins again with sugary white chocolate, then the swallow gives way to a smooth combination of toast, vanilla, mocha, milk chocolate and graham crackers. It lingers forever, and I'm absolutely fine with that. Some tangy notes emerge at times, but they don't detract too much from the good stuff. The medium-light body is a touch thin and softly carbonated, holding together well as it moves. Looong finish. A damn fine porter I could drink all night. Nicely sweet, deep enough in flavor to remain interesting. I really, really hope Prescott decides to distribute this.
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I wrote that review more than two years ago, when I first tried Prescott Brewing Co.'s chocolate porter, Achocolypse, on draft at the brewpub on Gurley Street in downtown Prescott. At the time, that was the only place you could get the beer, and so with some regularity I'd either ask friends to bring some back after wrapping up their weekend getaways or sojourn northward myself, my car laden during the mountainous return trip with many growlers of chocolatey liquid sloshing in the back seat.
But there's no need for that any longer. In late 2011, Prescott Brewing Co. opened a microbrewery location with a shiny new 30-barrel brewhouse and packaging setup. Achocolypse -- finally, happily -- is now available in cans.
For a thorough analysis of the beer's flavors, look above -- the brew's recipe, which combines dark and bitter chocolates in congress with roasted malts and supposedly took three years for brewers to perfect, hasn't changed substantially since it premiered in 2010. It's the same Johnny One-Note beer it's always been, meaning it can only play a single tone -- chocolate -- but it plays it extremely well. If you're looking for complexity and depth, you won't find it in a can of Achocolypse. If, however, you're a fan of fudge or chocolate cake or Godiva bars or Hershey's Kisses or Nestle Quik or any number of cocoa-based delights and would like to drink said treats in beer form...
Get Achocolypse now.
