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White & Dark Chocolate Pepernoten
Our Rating: 4.25 / 5
Vault City Brewing’s White & Dark Chocolate Pepernoten Imperial Stout delivers a dense, spice-driven winter stout built on chocolate malt, oats, and wheat. Cocoa, brown sugar, and layered baking spices dominate, with orange peel and alcohol warmth shaping the finish. Rich, full-bodied, and confident, it balances indulgence with structure while remaining unapologetically intense throughout tasting.
Beer Name: White & Dark Chocolate Pepernoten
Brewery: Vault City Brewing
Beer Style: Imperial Stout (Spiced / Winter Seasonal)
Alcohol: 13.0%
Taste Notes: Dark chocolate, cocoa powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, clove, ginger warmth, orange peel, alcohol heat
Serving: Can
Serving Size: 330 ml (11.16 fl. oz.)
Festivities From The Vault
Pepernoten as a flavour reference carries baggage in the best possible way: brown sugar sweetness, layered spice, cocoa, citrus peel, and heat that builds rather than flashes. Vault City Brewing translate that idea into an imperial stout built on chocolate wheat, malt, and oats, pushed to 13% ABV and seasoned heavily with cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, clove, ginger, cardamom, orange peel, and brown sugar. It’s an ingredient list that promises density, warmth, and intensity.
In our glasses, the stout shows near-black with a faint brown edge at the rim. Head formation is minimal and short-lived, leaving a flat surface within seconds. Carbonation stays visually quiet. The body leaves slow legs on the glass but avoids syrupy cling.
Aroma leads with cocoa powder and dark chocolate, immediately followed by cinnamon and clove warmth. Ginger brings a sharper heat that sits higher in the nose, and orange peel adds a dry citrus edge that somehow hints at alcohol burn. As the beer opens, the spice blend tightens and the citrus shifts toward zest and oil, losing sweetness and gaining bite.
The first sip confirms a full, creamy mouthfeel. Oats and wheat spread the sweetness evenly across the palate, giving the beer weight without heaviness. Chocolate comes through as dark drinking chocolate and cocoa nib, not fudge. Cinnamon and nutmeg sit squarely in the mid-palate, clove stays controlled, and ginger introduces a steady tongue-side warmth. The finish pulls sweetness and spice forward, then closes on orange peel and alcohol heat that lingers.
Who Lost Their Cookie?
As the glass progresses, the stout’s structure becomes more defined. Brown sugar deepens the sweetness and pushes the chocolate toward molasses and cocoa syrup, increasing both body and flavour saturation. That added density sharpens the edges of the spice blend. Cinnamon and clove merge into a unified warmth, while ginger continues to cut through with heat.
Orange peel grows more assertive as the temperature rises, shifting from aromatic zest to a firmer, alcohol-leaning citrus presence, almost like a sweet limoncello or orangecello.
Carbonation remains low in volume but turns prickly in sensation, especially mid-finish. It lifts the palate briefly, then reinforces the alcohol warmth, shortening repeat sips. The base stout holds together impressively at 13%, supported by enough roast-derived bitterness to stop the sweetness from running unchecked. Where the beer strains is balance at higher temperatures, where citrus peel and alcohol begin to dominate the back half of the sip.
In BJCP terms, this aligns most closely with 20C Imperial Stout: very dark, very full-bodied, low carbonation, pronounced alcohol warmth, and layered malt and chocolate depth. The heavy use of spices and orange peel places it firmly in spiced specialty territory, functioning as a winter seasonal expression built on an imperial stout frame. The base supports the additions well, even when the seasoning presses hard.
Untappd lists an average rating of 4.1, which feels consistent with what’s in our glasses. The beer delivers richness, clarity of flavour, and a clear seasonal identity, while the citrus-alcohol interplay introduces a dividing line for some palates.
Taken as a whole, White & Dark Chocolate Pepernoten is a committed, high-impact imperial stout that rewards slow drinking and attention. At its best, the chocolate base and spice layering work in lockstep, delivering warmth and depth. At its most demanding, the alcohol and orange peel assert themselves sharply. It never loses focus, but it does ask the drinker to meet it on its own terms. Yet again, Vault City has managed to make an absurdly rich and well-crafted imperial stout.
- Viktor: 4.00 / 5
- Casper: 4.25 / 5
- Laurits: 4.25 / 5
- Jesper: 4.50 / 5
Our Average Score: 4.25 / 5
