Youngs Special London Ale

Brewed by Wells & Youngs
Style: English Strong Ale
Bedford, England

Serve in English pint, Snifter

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A very nice bottle-conditioned ale. Chewy from the get-go and warming throughout. This is a filling beer with more hops then usual for the style like the other raters stated. Let it warm up a bit before you sink in.

Superb Ale, excellent stuff, the best bitter i’ve ever tasted :)

UPDATED: NOV 21, 2003 Very good, very, very good. Not hard to see why this is an award winner. Great hoppy aroma, with bags of flavour and sweet hints of toffee. A very well balanced and delightful beer. Re-rate...(aged for 1 year. Colour and appearance has not changed from the fresh example. However the nose has increased in intensity. Unaged is a little harsh but the aged bottle has developed a vanilla and toffee complex that is very pleasant. The change in taste is fantastic, making a good ale a great ale. Complexity has increased. It is warmer with toffee and raisin flavours. The development in flavour has made it more rounded and the difference between the two samples is surprisingly noticeable.

This beer makes me happy, untill the bottle is empty. Then I am sad.

nice amber color, malt and citrusaroma's. Nice long taste and easy to drink aswell, again a hit from this brewerie

Very good ale. Golden in color. It has a perfect blend of english hops which are well balanced with the malt. It has a pleasant fruit aroma.

UPDATED: NOV 17, 2009 It’s one of my favourite beers. This ale has a very complex, fruity flavour of pear and wild strawberries. Excellent aroma. Peaches, caramel and grapefruit in the taste. Some wild strawberries show up both in the nose and flavor. A strong hop presence with an extraordinary enjoyable strong bitter finish. Best served not to cool, almost at room temperature. Highly recommended! I love the form of the bottle and the design of the label too. It’ s a real pitty this ale has been retired. Later sampled versions didn’ t quite match the complexity and taste this beer used to have. Rerate: An outstanding ginger characteristic to the taste which I haven’t noticed before. Rerate 2: A sublime beer with hints of pumpkin, candied fruits, pepper, licorice and wild strawberries. Rerate 3: This beer really tastes of hops. Sublime hop profile. Outstanding. Extremely pleasant. Rerate 4: (after dozens of samplings) Definetely one of the best beers I have had so far. A lot of vanilla notes. Sublime. Rerate 5: Definetely a mindblowingly good beer with a striking mandarin component. Excellent.

dark golden colour, light head. frutty flavours with bananna aromas. extremely hoppy with sweet on the first sip, dry finish. medium bodied

Yes, a great one! I’m glad that i taste it. Beautiful copper, well-balanced body with a nice lacing head. Intensive aroma of fresh fruits (citrus, orange) and an overwhelming healing taste. Mildly pungent palate, nice for an ale. A bit dry yeasty impact. It reminds me to the Belhaven’s Twisted Thiste. Once more: great one, or as Duke Ellington would say: That’s the one!

UPDATED: OCT 15, 2009 50cl bottle. This "real ale" has a beautiful, hazy amber colour, with a smallish, creamy off-white head that disappears rather quickly but leaves lacing on the glass. The aroma is rather sweet, of fig, citrus fruit and malt. The fruity character extends to the taste, nicely balanced by a resinous note of roasted malt. Long hoppy finish and aftertaste. A strong premium ale that does not wear the alcohol on its sleeve, so to speak. Beautifully balanced, eminently well-crafted, superbly drinkable beer.