The sample I was given was heavenly on the nose of BIG chocolate,
then came the taste. Reminded me of milk weed sap…sorry just wrong not a good thing. ???
I haven’t had this year’s version yet. The last two years I thought were quite tasty, kind of dry and not overly sweet with a cocoa powder type chocolatey-ness. It wasn’t my favorite of their Smokestack line of beers though. I’d be interested to see if you just didn’t like it, or if they significantly changed it this year and it’s just not as good.
They had some issues with this years batch, hence the partial recall:
http://www.boulevard.com/beers/chocolate-ale-refund-announcement/
Last I knew according to one of the assistant brewers they were still looking for a reason why…
Yeah I am not surprised to see that there’s an issue after reading 1vertical’s review. Prior years have been really good, if not their best.
Their best smokestack is hard to choose, but I’m quite fond of the sixth glass quadrupel and the harvest dance wheatwine. 
I had a sampler of one a month or two ago. I thought it was pretty good. Definitely not the part of the recall. Nice chocolate nose and a good flavor. But still, probably not a beer I’d want a full pint of very often.
I tried this on tap in Austin Texas earlier in the year. It was interesting, but nothing I would need to drink again.
Same goes for their Tripel Julep that I tried in Sioux Falls, SD. Bourbon barrel aged tripel with mint added. Crazy sh!t indeed, but that doesn’t make it a great beer.