Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Cadbury-esque colours here on what is a pretty easy to find double chocolate stout.

It's a pretty standard sort of setup here - fluffy head, light black colour, nose of dry cocoa, taste pretty much likewise. It's maybe a bit watery, perhaps a bit less lush than you might expect from the moniker 'double'. Indeed there's only really one chocolate I taste in it.

Overall this is kind of like a watered down Choc Hops - or more to the point I suppose Choc Hops is like a geared up, better quality version of this. Still, could be a lot worse. 6.5

Marston's Oyster Stout

Tools and oysters indeed.

Nice creamy head on this, very attractive. Then you smell it and oh dear, it's all metallic sourness and arse I'm afraid, backing up a piddly 4.5% abv. Unfortunately the taste follows this trend, sweaty sort of watery caramel, metallic notes.

Having given this a few days now and still feeling oddly sick when I think about it, I have to ponder if this now qualifies as bad as our other recent contender. It's a lucky escape for Marston's from only the second flat zero ever awarded, only because I'm not sure if it's this beer, or the style overall that is the real culprit here. 0.5

Fuller's Past Masters XX Strong Ale

Confession: I bought this thinking it was a stout. Imagine my surprise (rage) when I realised I'd bought both something by Fuller's, and an English Strong Ale at that.

Then imagine my bewilderment when it turned out to be pretty damn good. At 7.5 this is a calm beer of the toffee and caramel class, but sits well, with a little coffee and slight 'imperial' alcohol vodka tastes at the end. Aroma's not great.. but I can put up with it.

One of the better beers of this type I've had. 7.5

Newcastle Brown Ale

Right on the cutting edge of craft brewing technology, this blog, what with reviewing a mass produced commonly available ale seemingly brewed by Heineken and such like.

Took me a moment to work out what was wrong with this photo, but indeed the bottle is totally clear. Not sure how that works? Beer is pretty damn brown though, bit more fizzy than I was expecting, very low head that evaporates instantly. Smells mostly of bittering hops. Oh boy.

The taste has a little bit more going for it, there's notes of caramel and very slight nut under a pretty drinkable lid. Still slightly too fizzy, bit aggressive early for my liking particularly for this style. Bit of bitterness but it's all  a bit characterless and watery.

A check of the label and yes it contains glucose syrup, caramel, and carbon dioxide. Still, as these things go, I've had far worse. 4.0

Courage Russian Imperial Stout

A big ten percenter from an English brewer in the Russian style.

Didn't have a photo for some reason. But the beer is in there somewhere so that'll have to do.

This was first brewed for good ol' Catherine back in 1795 or so they say.

Pretty big alc on the nose, and this smashed me with alcohol taste on the first bite too. Bottle says pear tastes, I got a bit of that front of the mouth. Swish it around and it's aggressive, but the coffee helps pull it through.

Err. Bout equal with  Murray's Spartacus. From the 10% beers we've had of late.. I'd stick with Lenny's HeBrew RIPA. 6.0

Samuel Smith's The Famous Taddy Porter

Another pitch black porter - but in contrast to mr goat, very light in the mouth.

 
I got mostly caramel rather than stout / porter flavours. A little bit of coffee there.. but it's watery on the whole, very light. I suppose that makes it more drinkable to some but to me it tastes like more of an amber ale or something rather than a porter to be honest.

Nice enough - i'd drink it again no worries and there's really nothing offensive - but didn't really hit my porter craving at all. 6.0

Things not to buy

Sunner Kolsch. And Fuller's ESB.

I thought I liked both Kolsches and ESBs.

Then these two versions from their own homelands prove me wrong.

Horrid. Like 'Australian Chinese' food we have imported the thing and then done it better. When you are at the bottle-o next and tempted by these 500ml bottles of wisdom, for gods sake buy something Australian instead.

That is all.