Young's Double Chocolate Stout
By John & Dad on September 8, 2008 @ 8 PM (6 Comments)
Father and Son Beer Love start each Thursday morning looking forward to Thursday night, which is when we have our weekly beer review. For this week's review we each picked up a bottle of Young's Double Chocolate Stout, actually listed on the bottle as Young's Luxury Double Chocolate Stout. It's brewed by Wells & Young Brewing Company over in the UK, the same company that brings us one of our other favorite stouts - Young's Oatmeal Stout. The good news is this one is just as good, if not better, than it's big brother.
It comes in a 500 ml (1 pint, 0.9 oz) bottle, and that's a perfect size for this 5.2% ABV beer. For this test we used an English pint glass and got a temperature of 50.9 F. Our initial pour gave us a large 2 1/2" foamy medium brown head that had a good amount of head lacing as it dissipated slowly. The color is a solid opaque black and we noted a little bit of carbonation.
The aromas come in as surprise - chocolate! Loads and loads of chocolate.There's also lots of sweet malts. It smells like a great chocolate milk (maybe even a Yoo-hoo). We also get some notes of vanilla, milk, cream and as it warms there's a hint of alcohol (interesting, considering the relatively average ABV). The taste gives you surprise - chocolate! Gobs and gobs of chocolate. We also get some notes of cream, milk and a touch of coffee. Not terribly complex, but what it does it does really well. The chocolate you get in the smell and taste isn't really dark chocolate - more like a semi-sweet chocolate.
The initial flavor notes are a moderate sweet that continues on to the finish, where we also get a light bitter. The finish length is short, the mouthfeel is halfway between watery and creamy, the tongue hit is right in the middle of the tongue and there's a good amount of body lacing. It's a very clean finish - almost the cleanest finish of any stout we've had. On our patented malt to hop scale it comes in about 3 clicks to the left of balanced on the malty side - very malty, but not as malty as it gets. Full Dr Beer Love disclosure: we love the malts. We're crazy about the malts.
On our bottom line notes we got a yes to drinkable (what's one step better than yes? An emphatic yes!), repeatable, balance, harmony, memorable and buy again. The only no we got was for wow factor - we've had a better chocolate beer (see Foothills Sexual Chocolate).
Overall this beer has something great that not a lot of chocolate beers have - repeatability. There have been several other chocolate stouts that by the time we got to the end of them we hated. Not the case with Young's Double Chocolate Stout. It's sweet, but not too sweet (which is what we hit with a lot of the other chocolate stouts that we start to loathe). It's definitely a great session beer.
This beer could be a great introduction to stouts for a beer newbie. It's got a relatively low gravity, it's not too dry and it's not hard and complex like a lot of stouts. Father Beer Love called it a "semi-stout" which is a really great descriptive phrase for it. The other great thing about the Young's Double Chocolate Stout is the drinkability. This is the quickest we've drunk any stout thus far. It would go great with vanilla ice cream, pound cake or strawberries (think lighter desserts than heavier). It's a damn joy to drink and we drank the crap out of it - it's a gulper! Pick up a few bottles of this next time you find it and you'll be glad you did.
Completely agree with you that this is a great beer to give a friend that has never really tried a "full impact" stout before. Give a macro-drinking friend an Old Yeti or Stone Russian Imperial and he'll nearly pass out upon the first sip!
Aaron
www.theviceblog.com
Posted by
Aaron on September 11, 2008
@ 4 PM
I tried this beer at a stout tasting night at my local brewery. Instantly became the most delicious stout I have tasted. I agree with you with the repeatability. Not overly sweet - just delicious.
Posted by
monet on March 17, 2009
@ 9 PM
I have to agree, as well. I just celebrated my 21st birthday, and I'd never really tried any beers other than cheap junk like Corona and Bud Light (both of which I HATED!). I tried the Young's on recommendation of the waiter at the pub/restaurant (here in Dallas), and I loved it! It wasn't overwhelming, and any negative hints it might have had were easily and immediately outweighed by the sheer tastiness. It went well with the Bailey's Ice Cream I split with my girlfriend for dessert!
Posted by
Xeigrich on April 18, 2009
@ 1 AM
Gotta agree with the Doc on this review. Young's is a really nice beer - not overdone in any way at all, as the others have also noted. I've also seen it available in a can - I wonder how that is in comparison to what I had in a glass bottle. Its supposed to be amazing on tap!
Posted by
Scott-TheBrewClub on April 30, 2009
@ 2 PM
Scott - Father Beer Love and I got a 4 cans of this last time he was in town. I gotta admit - the cans were damn smooth and the creaminess was almost ratcheted up a level from the bottle. We did a session with some toasted multi-grain wheat thins and a nice port salut cheese and it was the absolute perfect complement. Have never had it on tap, but when I find it, watch out. I'll be taking a cab home that night.
Posted by
John on May 1, 2009
@ 3 PM
The Doctor's diagnosis is right on. This stout is the best I've had. I used to think Stone's chocolate oatmeal stout was tops...but this one kicks ass. An excellent brew for any occasion. Please enjoy responsibly...no way!!!!
Posted by
Dogman on May 22, 2009
@ 2 PM
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