February = Beer + Chocolate

Since it is February, Elevator Brewing Company thought it only fitting to feature two new beers this month crafted with traditional Valentine’s Day fare.

That’s right: Chocolate. Introducing Chocolate Cherry Wheat and Mocha Plum Stout, now on tap at Elevator.

Chocolate Cherry Wheat is Brewer Mark Beery’s second creation for the Professor of Hearty Drinking (PHD) program. Beery shot from the hip for this recipe, with no smaller batch or draft version to work from. The result is a light wheat beer with fruity esters, similar to a Belgian blonde due to the use of trappist yeast.

“There’s a hint of chocolate and a hint of cherry,” Beery explained. “It’s there, but it’s not going to whack you in the face.” For a food pairing, Beery recommends a salad with ranch dressing and bleu cheese crumbles.

The Mocha Plum Stout, by contrast, is as decadent as the Chocolate Cherry Wheat is subtle. Masterbrewer Vic Schiltz packed 16 pounds of chocolate and 42 pounds of plums into this recipe, part of the Masters of Beer Appreciation (MBA) program.

“It’s just your basic chocolate stout,” said Schiltz, ever the modest creator. A fun insider secret: Elevator’s previous batch of Mocha Plum Stout, unveiled at the Columbus Microbrew Festival in September, was actually made with prunes.

Come on down and fall in love with these new beers, available for a limited time only.