Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Beer: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

            I bought this beer in one of the best beer stores in a 100-mile radius from my house. I stood in the beer aisle surrounded by bottles with labels I have read about online but never had the luxury of trying before. My budget was lower than I would like but I did come home with a whole lotta shit. Before I could leave, however, I had to triage what was absolutely necessary and what could be saved for later. Young’ Double Chocolate Stout made the cut simply because of pintley.com(Link). Pintley has been heralded as the Pandora of beer, and so far its been pretty cool about schooling me in lots of beer’s I should try. You rate beers you’ve tried and they recommend beers you should try based on how you’ve rated other beers.

However, I have my doubts about how they do this. Pandora looks at tons of factors in the songs you choose. They do recommend bands similar to those you give a thumbs up, but they also look at the tempo, melody, and rhythm of the songs you like and recommend similar artists/songs. With Pandora, they really do seem to choose songs I like(this statement is only mostly true….sometimes I do wonder how Jack Johnson could be anything like Slipknot). I don’t really know that pintley is doing this. Tastes are subjective and it would be impossible to categorize all the beers out there unless they were utilizing user reviews, which would be really subjective. I imagine they just link beers that are in similar categories, which is why Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is at the top of my recommended list. I like most stouts, big heavy stouts. I also like Belgians and Imperial IPAs. I gave Guinness a 4 out of 5 stars, but other than that I’m not sure why Pintley thinks this beer is for me. Luckily, I love the stuff, but its flavor profile is not what I or Pintley had in mind when they recommended it at the top of my list.

Aroma: British… theres caramel and maybe slight chocolate but mostly just mild british ale aroma. If you’ve ever had an English mild or an English bitter, imagine that but a little more pungent and roasty. It smells like the history of british ales has been compacted into one smell.

Taste: When it hit my lips there was a short delay while I had to plough through the head of it to get to the beer so I could taste it. When I first tried the beer I got virtually no chocolate. Now that I have let it warm up and have really given its flavors a chance to shine, I definitely taste chocolate. Not just chocolate malt flavor, but an actual flavor similar to cocoa powder. After the chocolate flavor I get roast that stays on the tongue for a little while after the sip. Think guinness but less sour, and more dark chocolate.

Mouthfeel: Creamy and decadent. Its creamy feel leaves lacing in the glass and stays in the mouth long after taking a sip.

Worth a try?: It’s a creamier, more complex, version of Guinness with a more characteristic british flavor. I’m re-writing the “worth-a-try” section a couple days later. After finishing the four-pack I’ve become a huge fan of this beer. Its creaminess, huge head, and malty flavor make this an easy to drink sweet-stout.