Caledonian Chocolate Drop

Brewed by Caledonian (S&N, Heineken)
Style: Bitter
Edinburgh, Lothians, Scotland

Cask conditioned - handpump - Last Plantaganet, Leicester. A dark brown/ruby coloured beer with an off-white head. The aroma has caramel and bitter chocolate. The taste has a slosh of chocolate and a fair smidgeon of sweetness. Then there are some overtly bitter flavours. It’s an interesting beer and an interesting concept but I’m not sure the Willamettes actually work.

Knickersby ’Spoons. Strawberry sweet vanilla nostril. Lacy ruby. Buttery Cocoa Pops milk, slight mushroom earthiness, dunked digestive afters. Sweet but just about balanced by a nibble of roast. A sweet chocolatey/buttery mild, really.Tasty, but I could appreciate why octo couldn’t stomach it.

Chestnut colour with a thin white head. But - oh oh - there a shedload of diacetyl in the aroma. I can pick it up before I get the glass anywhere near my nose. That pretty much drowned out anything else in the aroma. The buttery impression persisted in to the flavour but there was enough chewy malt and chocolate to provide some relief. Actually quite tasty, although I can’t say I noticed the influence of the Willamette hops. . Slightly ashy mouthfeel. Actually quite decent, apart from the diacetyl, which rather spoiled it for me. Must have been something to do with the barrel or the conditioning as nobody else seems to have noted the diacetyl.

Cask - JDW, Canterbury. Chestnut brown with attractive hints of red in the right light. Nice size creamy off-white head that creates a splendid lacing. Chocolatey aromas with the occasional note of fruit. Milk chocolate flavours intertwine here with a standard malt quality. Reminded me of chocolate flavoured coffee syrup at times. Maybe a bit thin and single-minded, though not bad.

Cask handpull at Victoria Sporks. Dark brown colour with lasting creamy beige head. Milky choccy coffee flavour. Some dark cherry/plum fruit too. Bit grainy in the mouth. Pretty decent balance, touch of hop sting on finish. Choccy aroma. Fine. I always find myself sat outside the ladies loo in this pub and I have no idea why.

Cask at The Exchange JDW, Banbury, Oxon 31-03-08 Chesnut in colour with some ruby glints and a tiny white head. chocolate on the nose and in the mouth, no real bitterness here but also not particularly sweet. A very tasty beer if a little thin perhaps.

Sweet smelling. Sharp cherry hit with a grainy malt flavour then lots of milk chocolate. Fairly clever I thought.

Cask conditioned at a Wetherspoons. Dark brown with slight head. Dark roasted malts, quite mild in character, with a dose of caramel, toffee and really quite sweetish. Smooth with hints of hops. It’s ok but not something I could go back to.