The image of Samuel Smith’s Brewery couldn’t be more traditional. Old-fashioned pubs decorated with horse brasses and refreshingly free of piped music and gaming machines.

Cask beer delivered in oak barrels (by horsedrawn drays around the brewery’s Tadcaster home). Everything harks back to an earlier time. However, there is another, much more entrepreneurial side to the business too.

Sam Smith’s was among the earliest of the independent breweries to install its own lager plant (with great success), and a small subsidiary brewery in Stamford, Lincolnshire (formerly Melbourn Brothers) produces a range of fruit-flavoured beers by the spontaneous fermentation lambic method, otherwise unique to Belgium’s Senne Valley.

Organic beers have also been on its menu for a good many years, with this week’s feature, Organic Chocolate Stout, added to the range late last year.

The beer is deep brown in colour, with faint red highlights, and pours with a thick, off-white head. There is a rich and intense aroma of cocoa, with vanilla and a little damson sneaking in behind.

In the mouth, it has a smooth, creamy texture, a big, sweet, chocolatey flavour with a touch of coffee, and an alcoholic fruitiness hinting at cherry liqueur. Hops elbow their way into the mix late on, with a little dry, peppery note at the finish, but it’s sweet chocolate that dominates the beer from start to finish.

One for chocoholics, and a great beer to accompany desserts… and a full pint bottle too!

• As recommended by Jim Helsby, York Beer & Wine Shop, Sandringham Street, York