You know how they say magicians never reveal their secrets? Well here’s little secret for you: experienced brewers like Leo Fliman give all their secrets away in the name of beer.

One sip of today’s brew and you’ll taste how Leo abra-ca-dabra’d his way to winning MobCraft’s crowd-sourced brewing competition.

Here’s another little secret that Leo’s trained taste buds have unveiled: the reason Godiva chocolates are so good, and why they taste different than every other chocolate: hazelnuts! Leo loves rich, nutty, chocolate-hazelnut truffles so much that he was inspired to brew today’s competition winner Queen Hazel Bourbon Barrel-Aged Milk Stout. It tastes like he melted a whole shelf-full of Godiva’s chocolate-hazelnut bonbons and poured them into a bourbon barrel to soak up all that oaky vanilla booziness.

This 12% ABV BBA dessert Stout sounds like a shoe-in to win any competition right? Not exactly. Leo’s a perfectionist and he didn’t enter his recipe until he’d put it through a rollercoaster ride of test batches. After doubling up on the hazelnuts and real vanilla, and tweaking the malt bill until the mouthfeel was decadent enough for a queen like Godiva herself — he knew it was ready to triumph in any Dark Beer competition.

I guess the proof is in the hazelnut pudding — Leo’s Queen Hazel won MobCraft’s competition by a mudslide. His recipe was produced by an awesome brewery, his name’s been printed on the label, and ever since he was announced victorious, Leo’s become quite the local brewing celebrity.

Rated 4.22 on Untappd from the lucky few who have tried it