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Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout: A Chocoholic's Dream Brew?Nov 23 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line This is a very good stout, but it's not as rich in chocolate flavor as its name suggests
Young & Co. is one of the best- known and oldest English breweries, having been established first as the Ram Brewery, in 1533. It later became Young Brewery when Charles Allen Young and Anthony Futhergill Bainbridge purchased the operation in 1831. This brewery has an impressive lineup that includes about 20 different styles of beer. On a recent trip to the candy store, er, I mean, the beverage store, I found myself gleefully browsing through the shelves of beer, looking for something new to try. I had heard of the Young Brewery before, and I know I have tried some of its products in the past. I scanned the available choices, and my eyes were immediately drawn to one specific product, above all the others. It’s called Youngs Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. Like many people who stumble across this beer, I just couldn’t resist the name. It sounded like a chocoholic’s dream come true. I plopped down my $2.50 for a 500 ml (about 16.1 oz.) bottle, and was on my way home to sample what sounded like a scrumptious malt- beverage treat. Basic Characteristics of This Stout: I popped the top of the bottle and poured some beer quickly into a mug. I quickly discovered that this beer is very rich, creamy, and foamy. I was only able to pour a small amount- maybe 6 ounces- before I had to stop to prevent the foam from overflowing my glass. The head of foam was rocky and sturdy, light brown in color, and it made for a handsome glass of beer. As the foam slowly settled down, it left thick laces of lace along the sides of the glass. Like many other stouts, this one is very dark in color, almost to the point of being black. From a distance, it looks black but you can see that it’s actually dark brown, as you pour it. The nose is roasted, a little chocolatey, and herbal from the hops. Looking at the ingredients, I found that this product is brewed using pale malt, crystal malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley malt, sugars, and both Fuggles and Goldings hops. Oh, and I forgot one other ingredient- chocolate. Yes, the folks at Young’s Brewery add melted chocolate bars to this beer, as part of the brewing process. Now that my curiosity was at its peak, it was time to try the beer. As expected, this beer had a rich, dark roasted barley taste with a hint of coffee and a creamy texture. The hops were evident, too, and they made the finish nicely bitter and balancing to the sweet malt. The alcohol level, by volume, is 5 percent. The qualities of this product, so far, were similar to many other brands of stout. But what about the chocolate, you ask? Well, the beer does have some chocolate character, in the form of a bittersweet chocolate taste, like the flavor you get when you eat dark chocolate. However, I was expecting a little more than this. With such a powerful, eye- catching name, I was thinking that this beer would taste like a glass of Guinness with a dozen Hershey Kisses melted and shaken together with the stout. It wasn’t like that at all. It’ was still good, though, just not as rich and chocolatey as I expected. Food Compatibility: With this type of flavor, I think this stout could be consumed with hearty beef dishes, stew, and steak. But I think the best thing to eat with this stout is dessert, like chocolate cream pie, nut pie, or even a hot fudge sundae. The creamy character and the bittersweet chocolate taste go best with a sweet dessert. Final Thoughts: This is a very good stout. I like the creamy flavor, the dense foam, and the balance between sweet and bitter. It’s complex and interesting to drink. Among the many well- known beer products that are missing from the Epinions site, Young’s beer is one that surprises me the most. This is a large brewing operation and it should have it’s own page of products in Epinions. It’s another major oversight, on the part of Epinions, and it forced me to write this review under the generic “Favorite Hard to Find Beer” category. Several beer products brewed by Young Brewery have won awards. Double Chocolate Stout won a Bronze Medal in the 1998 competition from Brewing Industry International. It won a Gold Medal from this same organization in 2000. At $2.50 per 500 ml bottle, this beer might seem a little pricey to some people. I have never seen it sold in anything but the 500 ml bottle, and I think the price is fair, for what you get, although it is more expensive than most other beer. This beer didn’t quite live up to my high expectations. With a name like “Luxury Double Chocolate Stout”, I thought I was going to be drinking a sweet, creamy glass of stout that tasted like melted M&M’s with some malt flavoring. After all, the beer is touted as "double" chocolate, and as a "luxury", so I was expecting it to taste like a piece of chocolate cake covered in heavy chocolate syrup and served in a chocolate shell. Instead, what I got was a glass of malty stout, with a good hop balance, along with the taste of some bittersweet chocolate. Maybe it’s better that it turned out the way it did. Too much sweetness in beer can make it taste like a mixed- drink more than a malt beverage. Overall, I recommend this product. The chocolate flavor was not as intense as I first thought it would be, but it still made for a tasty glass of stout, and you gotta love the bold, attractive name! I rate Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout (It's even fun to say the name!) 4 stars out of 5. It’s a good- tasting stout, with good hop balance and a rich, creamy character. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a luxury, but it’s still quite good!  |
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