Chocolate and beer: Thornbridge Brock and dark nutty stuff

It's the last of the Brock. Four days down, the last of the nine pints tasting as fine as the first. There's a latent choccie note lurking that spurs me into another pairing, so the chocolate bag is raided for something suitably dark.


I picked up a bar last week in Sainsbury's made by Seeds of Change. They produce a range of organic foods, including chocolate, and invest a percentage of their revenue into research and promotion of bio-diverse agriculture. Their dark chocolate with hazelnut and walnut sounded ripe for pairing with a dark beer.






The Thornbridge Brock is a smooth stout that seems to only have an annual outing. Shame, really, as it's impressively dry and lightweight drink. The drop from my makeshift stillage gave it a decent fluffy head and a waft of roasty chocolate. Kelly at the brewery had told be to ignore the 'best before' date, saying that a month beyond it would make for a tastier beer. And, he was right - the chocolate notes are deeper than I remember, seems to be a fuller body too... though of course that could be down to recipe-tinkering this time around?


A nibble of chocolate next. Fairly thin bar, the crunchy nut bits making for a good gritty, brittle feel. The chocolate reveals itself late on the palate, decent depth with just a hint of sweetness from the hazelnut. It's one of the most moreish bars I've tried recently, not so bitter that a row or two will suffice. I had to slow myself up, otherwise it would have disappeared swiftly.

These work well together, the cream edge to Brock starts dragging the vanilla out of the chocolate. The smooth silk palate of the beer complements that shard-driven dryness in the chocolate and coaxes out a sweetness that seemed to be subdued before.


Here's a first for me - still got half a pint left but all the chocolate's gone. I'm almost tempted to go open the bar I bought for my wife (milk with apricot and cashew) to see how that pairs up.... but I've got my eye on a tripel to go with that ;-)

And because one of you will ask... yes, the chocolate balanced on top of the glass *did* fall in, I *did* use my fingers to recover it and it *did* taste a little of beer. Mmmmm. Beer chocolate....