A beer for the chocolate lover in you
Written: Oct 31 '04 (Updated Oct 31 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A great dessert beer - by itself or with cake
Cons: Too rich to drink more than one at a time
The Bottom Line: Drink this after a meal as a dessert - you won't be disappointed
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| carnut2k4's Full Review: Young's Double Chocolate England 16.9oz |
Hoppy Halloween everyone! Being that it is all hallows eve I decided to trek on down to my local beer store and pick up some Pumkin Ale. It was to be my first tasting – if they had any. They didn’t. In fact the kid had never even heard of such a libation – apparently he doesn’t lurk in the vaults of epinions past, reading about strange and exotic beers. His loss. I walked around looking for a beer that I had never tried before. And so I stumbled upon Young’s Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. Beer and chocolate! I’m not known to say ‘no’ to either very often. This was destiny I tell you.
The Pre Game Show
The bottle lists a website (below) so I thought I would read a little about the beer before trying it out. Glad I did! Young’s is a rather large corporation that I knew nothing about. Apparently they brew countless craft brews and sell them through their own string of Pub’s throughout England. They also own a bunch of hotels. Their traditional Draught Beer has been brewed at Young’s Brewery non stop since 1541 giving it the distinction of being the oldest continuously used brewery in England. The website lists the ingredients of the Double Chocolate Stout as: Pale ale malt, crystal malt, roasted barley chocolate malt, special blend of sugars, fuggles and goldings hops, real dark chocolate and chocolate essence (my emphasis – maybe chocolate essence comes from existential cocoa beans?), the last ingredient is my favorite. Apparently they melt chocolate bars into the beer after it is filtered.
The Packaging
This bottle of beer was sold as a single and no multi packs were in the cooler. The brown glass bottle advises that it contains 1pt 0.9 US fl.oz. An attractive purple and black label promises that it will be ‘silky’, ‘smooth’, ‘rich & creamy’. At 5.2% ABV I’m not expecting an overwhelming alcohol taste from this beer. Out comes the bottle opener. Houston we have a problem. The inside of the bottle cap shows the beginnings of surface rust. Not what I was expecting to see. I hope this hasn’t tainted the brew rendering it not so ‘silky, smooth, rich & creamy’.
The Pour
I used a pilsner glass for this tasting – I always keep a few in the freezer. The beer pours a deep dark brown – maybe black is more like it. A thick and very creamy tan head of about a half inch depth sits on top. This head reduces to surface lace within a minute or two and eventually disappears completely. While it is there it leaves pleasing amounts of lace on the side of the glass as you drink. Holding the full glass up to a light teaches you that this beer is opaque. Not the slightest bit of light gets through, however the bottom of the glass, which is the thinnest part, shows a black cherry colored halo.
The Nose
I let it sit for a moment and then inhale the aroma a few times to get an idea of what I’m in for. First is the familiar malty smell that I get from all beers. More subtle is the smell of coffee and a sweet syrupy smell. As time goes on the sweet smell dominates and then the malty smell is gone completely. Towards the end of the glass all I smell is something close to cola syrup or molasses.
Over The Lips And Through The Gums – Look Out Stomach, Here It Comes!
Wow! This is some good beer. There are a lot of flavors happening at once but affecting different parts of the palate. Initially I just get a heavily carbonated malty taste but that quickly turns to burnt coffee and bitter chocolate. The back of the throat knows chocolate is in the neighborhood but the back of the tongue knows this is bakers chocolate – not a Hershey bar. The flavors linger and then turn briefly sour before disappearing. Halfway through the glass that sour end note has disappeared from the menu. Now it’s iced coffee with unsweetened chocolate in it. Oh man, I could drink this a lot – but not a lot at once. This is a dessert drink. I could imagine drinking this with a big ol wedge of Black Forest Chocolate Cake – Yum!
www.youngs.co.uk
Cost.....$2.79 per bottle
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
carnut2k4
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Member: Jason
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Muscle Shoals has got The Swampers
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