By Iron Chef Leftovers
Ommegang is a Belgian style brewery nestled in the hills of Cooperstown, NY. They make some pretty fantastic beers, my favorite being Three Philosophers. On this occasion, we cracked a bottle of Seduction, which the Ommegang website describes as:
…is lovingly brewed with six dark malts. Chocolatier Callebut provides the chocolate, while Liefmans brings the cherries. This international romance is consummated with a full body, alluring aromas and flavors of Belgian chocolate, and tart cherries. Seduction is an ale to be lovingly embraced.
Beautiful, rich and smooth, roasty and malty throughout, Seduction offers balanced chocolate-cherry notes, a bit of caramel sweetness, and a long, slow finish. Seduction is welcoming and warm-hearted, gently hopped and harbors no bitterness, leaving only a lingering glow.
6.8% AB
This beer pours jet black with a cream colored head. The nose is dominated by coffee, caramel and toffee, and there is a hit of 
cocoa there if you look for it. The initial taste yields flavors of chicory, licorice, cloves and spices (predominately cinnamon) with overtones of dark chocolate providing a long, lingering finish (think hot cocoa) and some slight bitterness. There are supposed to be some cherries in the beer, but I didn’t really get any until half way through the glass before hints of cherries started appearing on the finish. We started this beer out at 55 degrees, so I am not sure if there would have been a big difference at 45 degrees on this one.
Seduction will definitely put you under its spell if you like heavily roasted or chocolaty beers. I really enjoyed seduction, but my one issue with it is its price – it runs about $13 for a 750 ml bottle, so it is more of a special occasion beer rather than something to enjoy regularly. I did factor that into my scoring decision. While I enjoyed the beer, I don’t know that it was significantly better than a number of other chocolate beers I enjoy to justify the added cost.
That being said, Ommegang Seduction gets 3 romantic rendezvous out of 5.
FlatbreadGarden 