Been wanting to try this one for a long time, and I finally managed to get one from a local supermarket recently. After all, who doesn't like chocolate or stout? There is, however, some bizarre French-Anglo fusion of literature on the labels which is haven't seen before.
Pours blacker than a black thing; no light is getting through this bad boy. Nice soapy mocha head sticks to glass nicely and retains itself very well. Looks great.
Nose gives you roasted coffee, cocoa, milk chocolate and a distinct lactic note. Hazelnut praline is one way of describing it. Very nice! No hops at all that I can detect, but who wants hops when you buy a chocolate stout?
Heavily roasted malt flavours blend nicely with milky chocolate and nougat. Develops into dark chocolate bitterness, coffee and milky sweetness. Lots of complex bitter/sweet chocolate and lactic flavours in there to just about balance things out, seeing as there are almost no hops detectable
Mouthfeel is a bit of let down unfortunately; weak carbonation, thin on the tongue and coats the palate with a powdery / chalky feel. However, on the plus side, it does go down smooth (somewhat contrary to the thinness) and is medium/full bodied. Astringency is low too.
Damn, I was expecting so much more from this, and perhaps this is why I feel deflated are trying it. It is still a nice beer, but I feel like Wells & Young have tried too hard to get a ton of chocolate in there, and it doesn't quite work. Also, the roast is bordering on burnt which is never good. Perhaps if I managed to get a bottle without French written all over it, it might taste different...?
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