This past week, my wife and I traveled to Burlington, Vermont for our annual Beercation. We pick Burlington for several reasons. The town is beautiful, the food is fantastic and some of the best beers I have ever had are readily available. This year we enjoyed Lawson's Sip of Sunshine, Hill Farmstead's Sumner, Edward, and George, Fiddlehead's Mastermind Double IPA and The Alchemist's Heady Topper, Focal Banger, and The Crusher. While I could write a review on all of those beers, I am not sure it would be appropriate. I say that because I feel I love those beers so much, my blog would sound more like a commercial for them than a critical review. I will say this though, if you get a chance to try any of those beers, do it. They are all incredible and will not disappoint.
We also love Vermont for more than just beer. We love to walk through their state parks. We love to stop at their Farm Stores. We love their maple syrup and cheddar cheese. We also love Ben & Jerry's. For us there were two big goals on this most recent trip: go to The Alchemist's Visitors Center and go to Ben & Jerry's. For Ben & Jerry's, it did not have to be the factory tour(we've done that), we just had to go to one of their locations. Our visits to both of those were absolutely fantastic. So at this point you are probably wondering just where this blog is going. Well instead of reviewing a Vermont beer (because everything I had with the exception of my flight from Vermont Pub & Brewery was fantastic), I decided to review a beer with a taste of Vermont. That beer is New Belgium's latest collaboration with Ben & Jerry's, a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale.
Before I continue with the review portion of this blog, I think it is important to mention that I think this beer sounds gross. I've drank a lot of beers with ridiculous flavoring in my time but none in recent memory seemed as ridiculous as cookie dough ice cream. That being said, I really wanted it to be good. I really like Ben & Jerry's and I hope they would not put their name on something terrible. My gut just told me the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale was going to be an artificially flavored mess of a beer that I was most likely going to pour down the drain.
I watched the fizzy white head dissipate on this golden yellow ale and tried to work up the courage to take my first sip. The aroma was light but sweet with chocolate, vanilla with some grainy malt sweetness. Frankly, the aroma reminded me more of Cocoa Puffs than anything else. I do like Cocoa Puffs so I began to feel a bit of optimism. This feeling was fleeting as I took my first sip. The flavor is not as gross as I first feared, but it is just not that good either. There is a light, almost cereal-like chocolate taste in the beginning that lingers with some vanilla creaminess and doughy malt. The finish brings in the hop bitterness that stays longer than it needs to on the palate. I was fairly lukewarm on this beer until the finish where I think it completely fell apart. To the beer's credit, the flavors are not overwhelming here. This could easily have been overwhelmingly artificial and sweet. Fortunately it's not, but unfortunately it's just not that good. This is just another example of a bland base beer with some flavoring to cover it up. All New Belgium's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale really did was make me want to forget about the beer and grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream. It certainly would taste better.
Overall I would rate New Belgium's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale a 1.5/5. To sum everything up, go to Vermont, drink the beer and enjoy some ice cream. Just don't combine the two.
Rating Scale:
1 - Repugnant and undrinkable
2 - Acceptable but forgettable
3 - Good, worth a purchase
4 - Excellent, a step above the norm
5 - Truly exceptional
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Until next time Vermont...
Thanks for reading. Sláinte!
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