Some time ago I wrote a beer column that was distributed internationally by a large corporate newspaper, and I heard from a lot of readers from all points of the globe. I thought of one of those missives recently when I cracked a bottle of dark beer on a warm, sunny day.

For that previous beer column, I had written about some dark beer in the height of summer, and this particular writer berated me for drinking dark beer in the summer. He said something to the effect that I must be an idiot for not knowing that you don’t drink dark beer in the summer.

I’m sure I issued a very polite response to the effect that he can limit himself to such nonsense, but I will drink a dark beer whenever the feeling possesses me. And it possessed me recently. Three times.
Let’s begin with Organic Chocolate Stout from the great Yorkshire brewery Samuel Smith. Can something this chewy still be called beer? It’s more like devil’s food chocolate cake in a bottle. Lovely, soft cocoa flavor. Just make sure you have the time to spend with it because it’s a sipping beer.

Next time I’m going to pair it with a fruit beer, maybe New Glarus Belgian Red or maybe the Raspberry Tart. Pour a little of the fruit beer into the Chocolate Stout and you’ve got a party!

While drinking the Chocolate Stout, I was reminded of another beer that I hadn’t sampled in a while but had noticed on the shelves at the remarkably well-stocked neighborhood food emporium. I’m talking about Original Flag Porter, a beer that is bottled history.

OFP is based on a porter from the early 19th century. Bottles taken from a ship that sank in the English Channel in 1825 were brought to the surface in 1988 and analyzed by technicians at Brewlab, a British brewing industry educational entity. The beer was undrinkable, but the technicians were able to isolate the yeast that was used and created a recipe based on historical knowledge and replicated yeast of the time that produces an authentic period porter.

I love this beer. It’s not as dark as you’d think. It’s more of a ruby red-color. It, too, tastes like a velvety, rich liquid cake. Lots of coffee and dark chocolate and caramel notes. Try it, you’ll like it.

Finally, I could not resist Plum Noir, an imperial porter made by Southern Tier, an 11-year-old brewery in upstate New York that has won many a fan with its highly recommended Crème Brulee Stout.
Being a lover of plummy flavors, I looked forward to diving into this one. It is a tasty beer, but no plum flavors were evident to this palate, but there was plenty of evidence of chocolatey malt and dark coffee tones, all of which taste just as good on a brilliant sunny day as they do on a gray and cold one.