Youngs Double Chocolate Stout

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: Stout
Bedford, England

pours dark black with a strong aroma of roasted chocolate malt. flavor has a slightly bitter dark chocolate flavor. aftertaste is a little bit cocoa.

can - opaque black with thick brown guinessy head - sweet chocolate coffee odor followed by a malty burst of bubbles, cocoa powder (you can actually taste a slight hint of cocoa here)

I’ve had this on tap and nitrocan recently...I’d have to say tap was a little better, as expected...regardless, pours black with nice frothy beige head...roasty sweet smell with flavors of chocolate and mild roasted coffee bean...creamy mouthfeel with excellent lacing...to me its very similar to the Murphy’s and Guinness’ nitrocan "essence" with an extra touch of chocolate...easy drink, does’t weight you down.

Pours a very opaque black, with brown sugar-coloured head. The head is quite substantial, lasting for nearly the whole glass and leaving lots of lace. The aroma is roasted malt, molasses, hot milk chocolate powder. The mouthfeel is fairly smooth and thick, but a bit dry and chalky as well. The taste is unsweetened chocolate bitterness at the back (funny enough, a bit like eating a mouthfeel of cocoa powder), with a slight kick of fancy molasses. I find it somewhat astringent. The aftertaste is pretty well the same as the aftertaste from eating darker milk chocolate. Let me stress that this is more milk chocolate than dark chocolate despite the bitterness. I find this stout well-rounded and robust. I’d have this again without argument. One of the best I’ve had, and the best to come out of England (which wasn’t all that tough, really, considering my vast disappointment after my trip through Kent).

500 ml bottle - pours pretty much black with only the faintest of ruby hints at the bottom of the glass. Nice creamy mocha head that laces the glass nicely. It certainly looks the part. Aroma, as you might guess, is very chocolaty, but more milk-chocolaty than that dark espresso/cocoa flavours that are present in some stouts. This has a near-chocolate milk aroma, but there are still the underlying elements of a quality stout here. Flavour is very good, but a bit more scattered than the aroma, which was so well-integrated. Here, the chocolate really stands out, and sadly to the detriment of the beer. There is a nice sweetness and a slightly burnt flavour that lingers in the finish. Extremely soft and smooth on the palate, although it leaves a strange kind of dry artificial chalky feeling in the mouth. This is very good, but perhaps a touch overrated?

Rich dark chocolate nose, almost like baked chocolate cookies. Thick dense head, frothy with excellent lacing. Dark brown/black. Slight smoky sweetness. Rich and creamy, with a bittersweet chocolate finish. An excellent beer, very tasty and a must try. Also experimented with half Lindemans Framboise Lambic--amazing combo!

(Scores scaled back to Earth for repeated tastings. Still very nice beer though.) Bottle - slightly chilled. Medium-viscous blackish pour with billowing pale brown cap. Aroma releases childhood memories of when German commercial chocolate had flavour. Taste is as smells - wow, they could not have done a better job making hops and malt flavored with chocolate seem LIKE chocolate. I was caught off guard not believing this is beer, it is so well defined around the sweet-bitter balance of, all together now say it, CHOCOLATE. This is not Rogue and is absolutely unique, defying all useless wheedling comparisons and pining for other beers. This beer does not try to "step it up" with excess acrid roasts or husky hops to prove itself, and is all the better for it!

Not disgusting but overall not very enjoyable. Poured beautifully (just like a stout) with a brown lasting head. Smell was nothing memorable. Didn’t have too much of a stout taste. Felt very weak and thin in the mouth. Tasted bland of choclate and oatmeal. WAAAAAAY TOO sweet and smooth for its own good. But then again, I’ve been drinking a lot of IPA lately and perhaps I’ve fried my taste buds.