Chocolate meets beer

When you need a chocolate fix in liquid form, “forget hot cocoa,” said the editors of Draft. Next time, reach for a chocolaty beer. These three standouts use cocoa powder or roasted cocoa-bean kernels in the brewing process, and the resulting quaffs are three kinds of decadent.

Foothills Sexual Chocolate North Carolina. This seasonal stout, released each February, is “completely chocolaty,” but also offers “swirls of toffee, coffee, and dark fruit.”

Lefty’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout Massachusetts. Oatmeal and Valrhona cocoa powder combine to create a light, perky beer that evokes chocolate-chip cookies.

Boulevard Chocolate Ale Missouri. This dry-hopped ale “pours orange” but “tastes like chocolate milk laced with strawberry, chiles, and a little bitterness.”