Youngs Double Chocolate Stout

Great strong choco smell on this one. Mouthfeel is a rich, velvety smooth and creamy experience. I like my stouts a bit more full-bodied than this and the finish could use more of a kick...but that velvet smoothness...that’s the selling point.

Very dark brown, almost black with light brown, creamy head. Dry aroma with sweet chocolate roasted malts and a bit hops. Very chocolatey flavor is a bit ashy in the end and also some soft milk sugar -like sweetness. Aftertaste is ashy bitter. Palate is smoothly low carbonated, medium-bodied, a bit watery though.

(500ml bottle from Majestic Wine, Reading) Bit of a story behind this one. My Dad had said he didn’t want a chocolate egg for Easter, so I decided to get him a 4-pack of chocolate beer instead, with the added bonus that I knew he would insist on me trying one of them! I had often seen Young’s Double Chocolate Stout in the supermarkets previously, and the week before Easter saw me visiting supermarkets within an ever-increasing radius, without any success. The ever-helpful Hop Inn in Reading said they could get me some in within a couple of weeks, but that would have been too late. Eventually I located a crate of twelve bottles at a Majestic Wine Warehouse about a mile from my office - the act of lugging this all the way back left me sweating and exhausted (try it - twelve bottles get a lot heavier than you expect over a mile!) and led one of my work colleagues to describe me as looking like Mr Tickle! I knew my Dad wouldn’t want an entire crate of the stuff (plus I didn’t really want to spend that much!) so I then spent a couple of days selling the other 8 bottles off at work. Still, I finally got the remaining four bottles to my Dad, and was (as expected) presented with one of them. I took the beer, feeling that after all my effort it had better be good. And I’m pleased to report that it was. It poured a rich deep brown, with a lasting creamy head. The chocolate was evident from start to finish, but never overpoweringly so. The sweetness of the chocolate is well balanced with a roast malt/ coffee bitterness, with none of the syrupy aftertaste you might expect from a beer that has actually had chocolate melted into the mash tun. In fact, the mouthfeel is beautifully smooth, silky and creamy. This is a beautiful beer, and my only criticism would be that whilst the carbonation is only moderate, it could benefit from being reduced a little further, as it detracts from the otherwise velvetty tones of the beer. Overall though this is the best bottled stout I’ve tried to date, and I’d love to find it on draught somewhere...

great beer - heavy and full with chocolate notes - heady aroma, beautiful dark color and reddish brown head. finishes with roasted taste.

Deep reddish brown with thick slowly diminishing frothy brown head. Chocolate aroma, almost cocoa like with some roasted malts too boot. Flavor doesn’t translate as well with a lactic quality that is a little bitter. Creamy consistency with a tart chocolate aftertaste. Kind of reminds me of the end of a hot chocolate with a little too much powder in it.