Here’s number 9 in my reviews of the Black Is Beautiful collaboration series.

I asked one of this beer’s makers about how much of the “proceeds” that go to these various organization are generated by each sale. He said he thought it came out to around 25¢ per can. Which comes to a couple of dollar more than I would have ponied up without buying these beers.

So this version was a draft and 32 oz. crowler can release from Metal Monkey Brewing in Romeoville. It took me awhile to find the place, as I depended on the memory of the route rather than Google Maps directions that lag behind my actual position by several blocks. But I know the way now. This brewer is directing their proceeds to the national Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts. Their goal is to invite more Black participation in the classical arts, both as makers and audience members. They are currently also attempting to provide relief for musicians idled by the COVID-19 shutdown.

Their version of the collaboration is a “chocolate cherry imperial stout,” listed at 8.5% abv.

The beer kicks up a big head of tan foam from the first tab pull. There is a nice black stout body. A definite chocolate and chocolate roast malt smell, with an edge of cherries. The taste is lightly sweet, and the chocolate is definitely there, both from cocoa powder and, I think, chocolate roast malt. And then there are sweet cherries wandering in right afterward. Alcohol is there, too. Not like a barrel-aged beer, but there enough to be noticeable and snuggly.

Of course I didn’t dare finish the whole thing after recording this video, so I decanted it into a howler bottle. Then I had to do a regimen of Prednisone to deal with a panfully pulled leg muscle, so I did not get back to the remainder for almost a week. There is, though, no need to bother describing how that went down, because the taste is totally out of the brewer’s hands now. Yes, it did go flat, as might be expected when poured into a bottle with lots of headspace.