18. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

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Oh cripes, here we go again. From Wells & Young’s, the incorrigible beer-botherers who took a bitter and turned it into the lamentable Wells Banana Bread Beer comes another flavoured concoction. This time they’ve taken a stout and flavoured it with chocolate.

The thing is, there is actually a valid style of beer known as Chocolate Stout, but the term comes from the use of chocolate malts (named for the colour, more than anything). Young’s have apparently taken one of those and made it “double” by the addition of “natural chocolate flavour”, which doesn’t fill me with optimism.

Now, I do love a good stout. Enough to know that a good stout or porter should not really need any extra help to give out chocolatey, coffee notes. That this one does need a leg up has me fearing the worst.

Still, it’s in The Book, so I think we all know what comes next.

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Sniffing the brew with some trepidation, I’m almost relieved that I’m not actually getting a lot of chocolate. In fact this smells a lot like a decent, normal stout with a faint whiff of something extra, yet subtle.

That carries through to the taste. Again, there are no strongly discernable chocolate notes beyond what might be expected from a stout. In fact Young’s Double Chocolate ticks all the stouty boxes: it’s full-bodied and smooth with a good long bitter finish. If anything the chocolate addition just helps to take away a little of the rougher smokiness that many stouts have.

To my surprise, the result is really quite a nice beer, and I soon find myself settling in and enjoying it.

This perhaps doesn’t attain the level of “pure luxury/pur luxe” that the label aspires to, and it’s not a patch on, say, the Guinness Foreign Extra we saw recently, or my current favourite, The Redchurch Brewery’s Hoxton Stout, but it’s really OK.

Whether by luck or by judgment, this time Wells & Young’s haven’t created a monster by ruining a perfectly good beer. This is, on its own merits, a perfectly good, enjoyable beer.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Wells and Young’s, Bedford, England
Style: Porters and Stouts
ABV: 5.2%
Found at: Jolly Good News, Rosendale Road, London SE24
Dispense: 500ml Bottle

17. Chimay Rouge

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Having enjoyed Chimay Bleue quite so much, I was keen to crack on with trying the other two Chimays in The Book, the Rouge and the Blanche.

The latter two seem to be harder to get hold of, but a lunch hour stroll to the City Beverage Company was all it took to get my hands on this, the weakest—well, least strong—of the trio, weighing in at a mere 7% ABV.

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Chimay Rouge pours somewhat less dark than the Bleue, which is to say that light may actually penetrate it. It’s still a very dark, very hazy brownish colour, with a smallish off-white head that dissipates to a fine beige lacing quite promptly.

To taste, the Rouge has a noticeably lighter body than the Bleue, with more of a vinous, wine-like finish. There is also more hoppy bitterness, and a warming booziness that reminds you that if you weren’t comparing it to the 9.0% Bleue, this would be considered a very strong beer.

There isn’t the sheer luxury here that the Bleue affords, though, and the Bleue remains my favourite.

I’m aware that I’m making the Rouge sounds like a poor second-best by constantly comparing it to the Bleue, which isn’t really fair, since it’s still a genuinely good beer. It’ll be very interesting to see where the 8% Blanche fits in to the range. I feel a walk up to Old Street coming on…

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Bières de Chimay S.A., Baileux, Belgium
Style: Trappist Beers
Strength: 7.0% ABV
Found at: City Beverage Company, Old Street, London EC1
Serving: 330ml Bottle

16. Früh Kölsch

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Our second visit to Germany sees us breaking new ground. This is my first ever experience of the style of beer known as Kölsch.

Kölsch is native to Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen and in fact use of the name is protected by law, and restricted to a handful of breweries in Köln and a couple of surrounding cities.

For all of that. I suspect this is going to be a pretty ordinary lager. Let’s pour ourselves a glass and find out.

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Früh Kölsch looks a lot like a lager, but in fact is warm fermented, so I suspect that to use that term would be technically inaccurate. Even so, it’s the palest and fizziest beer we’ve come across so far. At a mere 4.8% it’s also the weakest.

Predictably enough, it also tastes like a lager, but a rather thin, mildly-flavoured one, quite in contrast to the Brooklyn Lager that opened my eyes recently.

It’s light and refreshing, and there’s a pleasant dryness to the finish, but apart from that, there really isn’t much to write home about here. The beer is clearly designed to be rapidly sunk several Steins at a time in the local Bierkeller without too much trouble, but it’s pretty forgettable stuff.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Cölner Hofbräu P. Josef Früh KG, Köln, Germany
Style: Kölsch
ABV: 4.8%
Found at: Waitrose Food Court at John Lewis, Oxford Street, London W1
Dispense: 500ml Bottle

15. Chimay Bleue

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With the two previous Belgian beers I’ve tackled, I’ve wondered aloud what the exact use case for these super-strength blonde bombshells is.

I have no such qualms about this one. Chimay Bleue is pure luxury in a glass. This is a beer just made to be savoured slowly, late at night, in your favourite armchair by the fire.

This is the first of three Chimays that are in The Book. All of them are brewed by Trappist monks at the Notre-Dame de Scourmont Abbey in Hainaut, Belgium.

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Chimay Bleue pours almost black, though if you hold it up to the light, you can see it’s actually a lovely dark ruby colour. There’s a small and very velvety beige head, and it tastes like the beer you always wanted to drink.

You absolutely must serve Chimay beers at room temperature, as it’s only then that the sheer quality and depth truly become apparent.

Bleue is rich, dark and chocolatey without being sweet. It has the smoky depth of a good stout, such as last night’s Guinness Foreign Extra, but without any of the bitterness and grit. It’s boozy, decadent, and hopelessly moreish. Still, at a Special Brew matching 9% ABV it might be wise to stick at one, and take your time over it.

Enjoyed that way, Chimay Bleue is just a wonderful beer, and the perfect nightcap.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Bières de Chimay S.A., Baileux, Belgium
Style: Trappist Beers
ABV: 9.0%
Found at: Waitrose, Whitecross Street, London EC1
Dispense: 330ml Bottle

14. Guinness Foreign Extra

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It’s March the 17th and so, predictably enough, it’s time for a Guinness.

Yet this is no ordinary Guinness. Bear in mind that there are countless incarnations of this most famous of beers, many of them quite different and most of them pretty ropey.

But this. Now this is the real deal. This is the 7.5% Foreign Extra version brewed right where it all began: St. James’s Gate, Dublin, Ireland, and it’s a bit of a stunner.

Bottle of Guinness Foreign Extra Stour

Foreign Extra was originally brewed in 1801 for export to places such as the Caribbean and Africa—I guess all those Catholic missionaries enjoyed a beer or two—and was made with extra hops as a preservative, and brewed to double the usual strength, presumably in the fear that some of the alcohol would evaporate on the way over.

It didn’t, and so the lucky recipients got rather used to the heady black stuff, and so it is still brewed to that strength both in Ireland and in Nigeria to this day.

It’s almost ironic now that by virtue of South London’s dynamic social demographics, the absolutely rough Nigerian-brewed Foreign Extra is far easier to get hold of around here than the original Irish version.

And yet, hold of it I did get.

So what does it taste like? Well, it is rich, dark, toasty, smoky and smooth, with a huge hop bitterness (60 units—more than many IPAs) offset by a lovely, subtle caramel sweetness.

It’s deeply complex, not least due to its production methods, which see beer being matured in wooden tuns for up to three months, and then blended with younger, fresh stout before being aged in the bottle for a further month. There’s a lot of work goes into this stuff.

In short, Guinness Foreign Extra is a quite different beer to the bland, artificial draught imitation that so many people will be drinking too much of tonight. My recommendation is steer clear of the phony Irish chain pubs and the drunken English people in silly hats, then grab a bottle of this, find somewhere quiet, and take your time over it.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Guinness & Co, Dublin, Ireland
Style: Porters and Stouts
ABV: 7.5%
Found at: Costcutter, Norwood Road, London SE24
Dispense: 330ml Bottle

13. Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

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Well, now here’s a little bit of variety: our first wheat beer, and our first trip to that most beery of countries, Germany.

Based on limited experience, I can’t claim to be a big fan of wheat beers, but there are an inordinate number of them in The Book. I think old Roger might be a bit of a fan, so I’m going to have to be open-minded.

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I’m clearly no expert, but Weihenstephaner Hefe seems darker than I’d expect from a wheat beer. There is a nice cloudy yeastiness to it however, and that should be no surprise, since “Hefe” means yeast, and this is an unfiltered variant of the style, designed to keep that yeast floating around in the beery goodness.

The taste is not dissimilar to the ubiquitous Hoegaarden, but is lighter and more subtle. In fact this is really quite a nice, refreshing beer. The hops are present yet gentle, and there’s a faintly detectable citrus twist and a nice long malty finish.

It isn’t especially complex, and there isn’t a great deal of depth to it, but this would certainly make for a most pleasing summery, sitting-outside-the-pub sort of beer.

It sounds a little like faint praise, but of the few wheat beers I have tried, I think this might be my favourite.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Weihanstephan Brewery, Munich, Germany
Style: Wheat Beers
Strength: 5.4% ABV
Found at: Sainsbury’s, Westow Street, London SE19
Serving: 500ml bottle

12. Duvel

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Back to Belgium we go, to sample the famous golden ale that looks like a lager.

Duvel dates from between the wars, and was – staggeringly – inspired by McEwan’s Export. Back then, the Export must have been a very different brew from the deeply questionable grog I used to buy at the Tollcross Superstore for 59p a can as a student, because this is nothing like it.

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Instead, Duvel is golden, light and refreshing, not least considering that 8.5% of it is alcohol. There’s a pleasant yeasty haze to it, and it has infinitely more charm than our previous Belgian beer, the mysterious Karmeliet Tripel.

There’s just enough depth here to allow Duvel to be savoured slowly, whilst remaining remarkably easy drinking.

I’m still not completely convinced about where these super-strength golden Belgian beers fit in to one’s beery routine, exactly. Duvel is nice enough, but I’d choose a rich, dark Chimay over it given the opportunity.

Stay tuned, and I soon will. There’s one sat in the kitchen right now…

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Duvel Moortgat, Breendonk, Belgium
Style: Golden Ales
ABV: 8.5%
Found at: Sainsbury’s, Westow Street, London SE19
Dispense: 330ml Bottle

11. Marston’s Old Empire

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This was the easiest beer so far to find, as I had a bottle stood in the kitchen even before 300 Beers was conceived.

It seems strange to think that it took Marston’s, founded in 1843 and based in Burton upon Trent – the home of IPA – until 2003 to brew an India Pale Ale. When they finally did, they came up with a real winner, and one which I enjoy fairly regularly.

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From the nose alone, you can tell Old Empire isn’t one of the current wave of citrus hop bombs like Thornbridge Jaipur or the Goose Island IPA from a few days ago.

In fact this is a more subtle and complex brew, where the toasty malty flavours are given equal billing with the hops. That said, it’s still very hoppy, as befits an IPA, so it’s really quite a strongly flavoured beer, with a lot of layers to it.

Lightly chilled, Marston’s Old Empire is a perfect curry quencher, but as it warms up there’s more and more to savour. Definitely a favourite.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Marston’s Beer Co, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England
Style: India Pale Ales
ABV: 5.7%
Found at: Londis, Westow Hill, London SE19
Serving: 500ml Bottle

10. Brooklyn Lager

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It had to happen sooner or later that I’d find myself drinking a lager for the first time in many months as a result of this foolhardy adventure. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Brooklyn Lager certainly looks good with its rather handsome label, reportedly designed by Milton Glaser. You may know him from such other designs as the famous I♥NY logo.

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Once poured, Brooklyn Lager looks like no other lager I can remember. It’s roughly the colour of a pint of bitter, and it turns out that this is an example of something called a Vienna Red lager, which is apparently quite popular in the US, whilst being something of a rarity in, well, Vienna.

It tastes a little like the good, imported Beck’s that you sometimes find in the UK, though with a lot more body and a most pleasing malty flavour. Brooklyn starts off quite light and refreshing, but there’s a lasting bitter finish that reassures you that you are, in fact, drinking a decent beer.

I liked this much more than I had expected, and would buy this again, probably to be served chilled in the summer. I’d go so far as to say that this is actually the first real revelation that 300 Beers has afforded me. I’ve learned something here.

A very nice beer indeed.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, NY
Style: Vienna Red, Märzen and Oktoberfest Beers
ABV: 5.2%
Found at: Waitrose, Whitecross Street, London EC1
Dispense: 355ml Bottle

9. Coopers Sparkling Ale

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This is the first of several visits we’ll be making to Australia, and I must admit to having been intrigued by this one since I laid my hands on it a few days ago.

Coopers Brewery was founded some 151 years ago by a Yorkshireman who made his way to South Australia, from whence comes this rather smart-looking and unusually-sized 375ml bottle. Let’s have a look.

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There may well be a reason for the unusual size of the bottle, since about 45ml of its contents are pure yeast sediment. There must be an inch of the stuff here. It isn’t pretty, but it isn’t a bad sign. It does mean that there’s really no way to pour this beer clear, so I didn’t try particularly hard.

We’re left with a hearty glass of hazy blonde ale, which seems to have less sparkle than the name might suggest.

There is a slight effervescence, which contributes to a surprisingly light, refreshing beer, and helps to deliver a subtle yet pleasant hoppy bitterness direct to the tastebuds. Beyond that, nothing in particular about the flavour really jumps out, but it’s certainly drinkable stuff.

Whilst one doesn’t like to perpetuate stereotypes, I can see this being a good beer to be served chilled around the barbie, or perhaps enjoyed on the beach in a pair of budgie smugglers. More realistically for us Brits, Coopers Sparkling Ale would make a satisfying accompaniment to a good curry.

An enjoyable enough beer, and it’ll be interesting to see what else Australia has to offer as we drink our way around the world.

Facts and Figures

Brewery: Coopers Brewery, Adelaide, South Australia
Style: Pale Ales
ABV: 5.8%
Found at: Waitrose, Whitecross Street, London EC1
Dispense: 375ml Bottle-conditioned