Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Another left over from an earlier event, this one late October's StoutFest 2011. Still a few little kegs left over, this is the last big one, and my first time tapping Brooklyn since they emerged onto our market this year. (I owe to them. A distributor rep did me the favor of getting me a signed copy of the Brooklyn Brewery story, Beer School, in which co-founder Steve Hindy inscribed, "thanks for bringing Brooklyn to the Blue Nile, Al!" I can't make him out a liar!)
I wrote the following about a bottle, back in April of 2003:

Rich mocha flavor wafts out of the bottleneck from the moment the cap snaps off! Oh, this is going to be good! 

The color is as black as strap molasses, with a rich bubbling, simmering, dark brown, puddingish head. THIS is STOUT! Already, it seems like a glass of melted chocolate! 

Aroma is gorgeous! Sublime! Soft, creamy, yet intense with cocoa, like sticking your face deep into a bag of the stuff, but still, somehow, subtle. 

Mouthfeel is powerful, thick, viscous, chewy. When people speak of smoothness as a supreme adjective for any sort of beverage, I reply that I like roughness now and then. This is what I'm talking about! There are several hurdles for the palate to play with, little bites and burps and gurgles, all the things that make beer drinking my favorite hobby. 

Many flavors mingle in the mouth, many associations gather in the mind, but largely the feeling is of a burnt cognac, a hot dark rum, and licoriceleatherespressoetceterainto infinity... 

Many waves crash again and again on the palate, many happy moments occur as the rough dealings of the day are forgotten and I am lost in this wondrous, darkly beautiful, and frankly ass-kickin' stout!