Creamy Beer? Sounds Tasty AND Disgusting.
by maoglone
Often, the name or type of a beer is descriptive of what’s actually in the bottle. This is to the advantage of the advanced beer drinker, especially if s/he knows what s/he likes, or is looking for, or whatever. The problem with these descriptions is that they almost never taste like what you’d expect if you’re inexperienced. Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout is a perfect example of this.
In my head, I knew it was a beer. My expectation was that this beer was going to taste like a 12-oz. White Russian. Yeah, it doesn’t. Not at all.
Double Cream Stout, however, is a pretty solid beer. It has a slightly sweeter smell than your standard stout, pours slightly thinner, but is just as dark as you’d expect. Nothing super-exciting here.
First drink: like I said before, my baser expectations led me to believe that I was going to drink a stout that’d been mixed with Kahlua, so my first instinctual reaction was one of disappointment. As I actually tasted the beer, though, I have to say that I was quite pleased. It’s got all the taste of a good stout, but that taste has an underlying smoothness to it. I’m assuming that’s the “double cream” at work.
In general, Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout is quite a wonder. It’s a good beer, smoother than what you’ll find with most stouts, and this makes it a pretty good starting point if you’re trying to get into dark beers, I think. It’s thick enough to enjoy, but doesn’t have that “I just ate a loaf of bread” feeling that you’ll often get with a stout. At the same time, it’s not something that I’d drink more than a couple of at any one time–you’re likely to send your face into haywire mode if you do that.
On the ol’ crap-to-superb scale, I’d give Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout a “Very Good, Can I Have Another Half Glass?”
Ed. note: If you’re interested in writing a beer review or two every week, get in touch. I’d like to post more reviews every Friday, but don’t have the time to write more than two a week. We can discuss format & other requirements later. Thanks!