Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Name: Luxury Double Chocolate Stout
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 500ml bottle
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Wells & Young's Brewing Company
Location: Bedford, Beds., UK
Weblink: Wells & Young's

Well this one was mostly intended as a blast from the past, to reacquaint myself with a beer that used to rank up in my top five. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I used to live less than half a mile from the Young's brewery in Wandsworth, London. Walking to work on those mornings when they were mashing was always a treat, as my route took me straight past the brewery walls and the whole town was infused with rich, malty smells. Sadly that is all gone now, with brewing operations moved out to the Charles Wells brewery site in Bedforshire, following the merger of brewing operations by the two companies. I have nothing at all against Wells, in fact their Bombardier and Banana Bread beers are two that I have enjoyed on many, many occasions, but I can't help feeling that that DCS seems to have become a touch more "Wellsy" over the last couple of years, which seems a shame. mind you, you have to bear in mind that leading up to this beer I had indulged in another of Southern Tier's enormous Blackwater Series stouts, including the Choklat mentioned below.

So, the beer pours fairly thin (again, this is probably relative, but my frame of reference was skewed!) with a dark black-brown colour and a frothy tan-coloured head. Looking good so far. As with many beers in North America, this one was served a touch on the cold side, so the aromas took a while to ease out. I get that the majority of Americans drink piss water that needs to be chilled to within an inch of freezing to make it bearable, but what is the excuse for Canadians? Seriously folks, ease up a bit on the temperatures. Ales should be served at cellar temperatures, that means 8-12°C, not completely frigid. Anyway, I digress; once it had warmed a little the scents of sharp malts (mostly the pale ale and crystal I'm guessing) and a bitter cocoa note dominated the aromas. In the mouth, the first thing I noticed was that this beer seems almost artificially carbonated in comparison to the Southern Tier. The sort of aggressive, fizzy effervescence that you normally associate with lagers. This seems to impart a slightly metallic tang to the front of your mouth. After this more typical beery flavours wash through, led by a nicely toasty, dark malt and again the bitter note of cocoa. There is also a certain amount of yeastiness coming through which I didn't remember, but seems to be a fairly transient thing. In the middle of your mouth things start turning bad, with an unpleasant, burnt rubber acridness coming to the fore. Fortunately this is fairly swiftly superceded by the chocolate finally making its presence felt, with a lingeringly off-sweet dark chocolate taste dominating your senses as the beer swills down your throat.

Overall I was a touch disappointed with this beer. Maybe my tastes have changed, or maybe its this ineffable "Wellsyess" that I mentioned, but Double Chocolate Stout seems to be more heavily carbonated and sightly more processed in nature than I remember, so I probably won't be repeating this trial again for a while.