Youngs Special London Ale

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: English Strong Ale
Bedford, England

From a 1pt. 9oz, ram embossed shaped narrow neck brown bottle with a blurb and pouring instructions and a best before date, 10/Aug/06, on the back label. Made a decent appearance, poured a slightly hazy golden hued bronze with a foamy beige head that settled into a thin creamy lacing, good carbonation. Had a grainy, earthy, fruity and caramel nose with just a hint of yeast. A slick, creamy smooth medium bodied mouth feel, good drinkability. Caramel malty and toasted grainy taste upfront followed by earthy, leafy hoppiness, soft in it’s bitterness, a subtle rind fruitiness, a spicy alcohol warmth, and a dry toasted grainy and earthy finish with little fruitiness and bready yeastiness lingering in the palate. A classic ESB, tasty, malty with a balanced bitterness, highly quaffable.

A very nice English ale, with a suprising maltiness to it, and it is bitter with a good amount of hop. Also a nice floral aroma.

Bottle. Pours deep orange\amber with a thin white head. Aroma of floral hops, citrus, and sweet caramel malts. Flavor is bitter upfront, sweet, caramel, citrus, and smoth going down. Good malty body, good brew.

Bottle. Dark amber body, smallish white head. Light citrusy orange aroma, minute resin and malt. Pleasant caramel malt with very slight earthy character to the bitterness, light slightly citrusy hops. Alcohol is not at all prominent. Average palate. Average and quaffable, Decent. Thanks Ebdens!

This is my favorite beer of all time on draft. I would die to have it on cask. My only problem with it is that it is made and marketed for America, originally anyway. The rest of the world should be insulted as a true beer lover would realize this is indeed Special.No longer available in these parts. Im sad over this but will pursue it with vigor! I understand you can’t find it in London anymore. An update from SE Pennsylvania!! This is available at Vadalia’s in Landsdale, Pa much to my delight. I’m enjoying one as I write. No reason to actually re-rate the particulars.

first,just by opening the bottle,a malty and rather sweet smell,but by pouring into the glass it smells hoppier not very thick head,slightly jellowish colored dark,a bit troubled orange-gold colour(or almoust orange-bronce) hoppy smell,orange smell,malt smell tasts much hoppier than one could expect by smelling at it.but also some orange-tasts and something spicy refreshingly carbonated. aftertaste first orange-taste,then really hoppy,at the end interesting bitterness really refreshing for a beer of 6.4%vol. first,i drank some of the content of the bottle in the way the brewery describes it,without pouring much sediment in the glass.then i tasted the rest of it with the sediment,then the colour is a little moretroubled,less bright,but nice too the taste is abit yeastier then,but altough hoppy,spicy and orange-like.so,i don’t understand,why the brewery suggests to let the sediment in the bottle.(i like unfiltered beers,but i know,some people don’t do!but here it would be a pity to drink it without the sediment!) i think,that this is a beer,that one shouldn’t drink too cold,then more different flavours are detectable.

Excellent. The strongess of the beer is balanced out by the hoppiness of the beer and the end result is a strong beer that goes down like a much weaker beer. I like the new bottles too. I could see myself getting totally ripped up on this stuff.

Pours amber honey color with medium sized froth. The aroma is fresh, crisp citrus dust. Nectar weight is light to medium with ample residual effers. Flavors are bright, fresh, and crisp with a perfect bitterness on the finish to keep you coming back for more. I have to say, I expected a malty character to accompany this higher ABV, but no. Kinda like a rare and recent sexy photo of Angelina.... without Brad. Well ballanced, alcohol is well hidden, and it’s perfect in it’s genre. Highly recommended.