ABV: 7.8%

This Friday we will celebrate one of the worst holidays, Valentine’s Day. If you’re in a relationship, it is almost impossible to make any kind of unique romantic plans that 100 other couples won’t be doing. If you’re single, it’s a 2 week build up engineered to make you feel like a loser. The one positive is that no one judges you for buying ridiculously expensive chocolates. This year I decided to try to find the beer equivalent of romantic, fancy chocolate. With the cartoon Rihanna-circa-Umbrella on its label, Founders’ Big Lushious was the clear choice.

Pouring the beer is almost like a science experiment in liquid displacement. The stout is so thick that it slinks into the glass without any kind of splashing, and is completely black. The head is cocoa brown, thick, and creamy – sitting around for a bit before it retreats to some nice lacing. The beer smells heavily of chocolate and a touch of coffee but not much of the raspberry.

Big Lushious is very well balanced so you’re always getting the full chocolate and raspberry blend without one overwhelming the other. It’s got a nice velvety feel and sticks to what it promises without adding any real flavor notes outside of the chocolate and raspberry. Founders uses a milk chocolate for the beer so it’s rather smooth without any bitterness. The raspberry is really my favorite part though. With a lot of fruit beers, the fermentation process tends to change the taste so that it’s slightly acidic and a little off. Founder’s was able to keep the raspberry true to its fresh taste as opposed to something that comes off medicinal.

With it’s mellow feel and sumptuous taste, this stout is basically the liquid equivalent of a song by South Park’s Chef. Definitely skip all the pomp and circumstance this year and snuggle up by the fire with a bottle of Big Lushious.