Champion Double Ale
Broughton Ales Ltd

 

500 ml bottle, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken. ABV is 5.6%. Very dark brown to black colour, moderate beige head. Aroma of dark malts, prunes, dark chocolate, caramel, some vinous hints. Flavour with the same elements (but no vinous hints here), also mild coffee, moderate hops in the finish. Okay.

Pours a dark-brown color with a medium top off beige head that dissolves slowly. Aroma is of caramel, toffee, dark fruits, sugar and some spices.
The taste is sweet with a nice malty profile in the background. It has hints of dark fruits, burned sugar, slightly roasted toast and caramel.
The finish has some small bitterness. Leaves and long aftertaste.
Medium body with a smooth and soft mouthfeel.
A quite tasty and simple beer. Not bad at all.

On cask at Glasgow Real Ale Festival. Very dark peaty coloured beer. Does taste like a cross between Old Jock and Dark Dunter as advertised in the programme and those are both tasty brews.

500ml bottle from Aldi. 18 month BBE on this badboy .

Pours red tinged brown, nice wee head.

Light roast and toffee aroma. Nice restrained.

Taste is similar but with a metallic bite. Reasonable bitterness and a juicy finish.

A good beer but I'd agree with the other reviews, it's neither one thing or another.

A 500ml bottle with a BB of Dec 2011. Picked up from a B&M store. The label states that this beer is a blend of two ales; a strong Scottish ale and a porter that are combined to produce a beer with a rich flavour. Unusual.

Poured into a tulip pint glass. A dark ruby-brown colour with medium carbonation; appears black unless held to the light. Yields a small, off-white head of foam that dissipates quickly. A complex, fruity aroma with notes of raisins, plums, dried fruit, brown sugar, marzipan and yeasty esters. A hint of sourness in the background.

Tastes of dark caramel malt with a fruity character and a bitter finish. Notes of dried fruit, raisins, prunes, molasses, yeast and stewed hops. Possesses a slightly sour, oxidised quality. The bitterness is attenuated by the sweeter elements of the flavour. Mouthfeel is smooth, tingly and full-bodied - though perhaps a shade thinner than the style demands. Mildly astringent. Coats the palate. Aftertaste of fruity malt and yeast.

Pretty good - a rich, fruity ale. Dominated by notes of dried fruit; the malt takes a back seat. It's also quite sweet, so would probably limit to one in a session. Interesting, with lots of flavour. Worth trying if you come across it.

As an Englishman from time to time I get a real hankering for a Scottish product, is this to escape to oppressive natures of my own kind and enjoy the romanticised vision of a warrior poet race
oh yes, the beer

Poured into a dimpled handled int pot creating a black coffee body with healthy thick tan head.

A rich aroma arises of plums, good port and petrol.

The taste is just as rich and fruity without becoming overly sickly nor too sweet whilst having real treacle flavours in there leaving on a malty kick.

Slightly too fizzy and a tad too thin but this is a good enough beer to compensate

I really enjoyed this ale greatly

500ml Bottle, best before the end of Dec 2011, poured into a vase shaped 'Old Speckled Hen' badged pint glass on 29 Nov 2011.

Dark cola coloured body, or a ruby red looking beer if you'd prefer. The head a thin covering of tight bubbles, off-white in colour.

Chocolate malty aroma, no hops in the nose that I could find, some pine nut hints though.

Strange taste combination, chocolate malts like the smell, with a fizzy pop (coke) flavour in the mix, I'm struggling to describe this too well: but it's a blend of two brews which to me don't go together as well as the brewery might have wanted it too.

As mentioned above, not sure what the brewer wanted from this beer: interesting, different and drinkable, but just lacking something I can't put my finger on.

This is the breweries take:

This exciting beer is a blend of a strong ale and a porter style beer each brewed in their own way, but married together in a conditioning tank to produce an interesting mix of flavour and aroma.

Major ingredients are:-
Optic Pale Ale Malt, Crystal Malt, Black Malt and pinhead oats. Hops used are English grown Challenger, Fuggles and First Gold.

My scores might be unkind, but I try and be honest.

Poured from a room temperature 500ml bottle into a pint glass.

A - Deep red to almost black in colour, and a good thick creamy tan head.

S - Chocolatey malts come through first. Subtle dark forest fruits. Biscuity graininess, with a quite sweet milky aroma. There is an almost syrupy sweetness to it. Smells much like a porter or stout.

T - The flavours seem to revolve around a central roasted maltiness. Weak chocolate. There is a fairly sour lemony aftertaste, which I wasn't entirely expecting. The flavours are overall quite weak.

M - Medium body but thinner than most Scottish Ales. Flat.

D - The aromas were great, unfortunately, the taste didn't follow suit. Somewhat weak in body, and weak, almost watery flavours. It's a shame because it showed so much promise.

I tasted this 500 ml bottle on 05.05.2008. The "Best by" date was Apr 08, so it was a week or so past it's best.

It poured like a porter; a very dark (almost) black body with a decent dark tan head. The brew, when held against the light revealed a tawny hue.
The smell was a subdued maltiness.
The taste was underwhelming; malty but not much fruit or complexity.
Overall a decent enough brew, but not worth the price (€3.95 in a Dublin off-licence).
Maybe I should try a fresher bottle.

Appearance: Deep, dark, rich-looking coffee-black cherry brown with a puffy, rocky, browned meringue-like head that retains nearly as well as a trappist head.

Smell: Big prune dark fruit base, with some pronounced dark rum sweetness echoed by a lighter fruitiness (think Meyer's atop a Mai Tai). Burnt malt sweetness runs the gamut from toasted marshmallow to caramel to cocoa, with a lightly spicy, estery hop profile and just a touch of whiskey-esque alcohol for balance.

Taste: Tangy sweet cola, chocolate, prunes, a bit of orange oil, slight buttery notes in the form of burnt caramel; surprisingly light for a blend of Scotch ale and porter, yet both styles' characters come through. Fruity, with notes of golden raisins and apples, but also woody, bitter, nutty, and dry. Malty but well balanced with a light alcohol spice and zesty, resiny hops. Not quite as complex or as rich as I had hoped, but pretty good. Finish is mellow and predominantly sweet, with plenty of raisins and a light tobacco-like smoky quality.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and slick yet taut, with fine bubbles helping to accentuate the beers' spicy notes and clean up the sugars.

Drinkability: This is a very nice beer, but to be honest, I can't quite decide how I feel about it. It has nice, sprightly carbonation and hops and a fairly light body that help keep it easy to drink, but on the other hand, I wish it was slightly richer. At any rate, it is a tasty beer and I certainly wouldn't mind having another pint. It is quite good with Cheddar, better with Emmental, and best with chocolate!

500ml bottle bought from Redmonds, Dublin...

Poured a deep dark burgundy / maroon colour. Nice mocha head poured small but quite tight and thick then faded to decent thickish coating... some very light lacing...

Aroma - Strong toasted caramel / toffee malt sweetness, lots of rich dark fruits (black currents, plums, some raisins, dates), treacle and brown sugar, fruits loaf / bready, very light marzipan traces, toasted nuts, light pepperiness, some earthiness...

Taste – Nice and quite strong toasted malt bitterness mixed with slightly watered down fruits (plums, raisins and some apples), nice peppery hops, toasted bread, definite hints of porter, liquorice quite noticeable, light brown sugar and toffee sweetness, burnt nuttiness, some grassy and floral notes coming through...

Feel - Pretty smooth and creamy with a little sharp bite underneath... medium bodied... a very quaffable brew at 5.5% - taste as though it should be stronger...

Overall - A very good example of a Scottish Ale with definite hints of porter coming through... definitely worth a try...

Reading the back of the bottle it is described as "a malty Scottish ale" combined with "fine porter". This usually translates into a dark Scottish ale and, sorry to say, I am not a big fan of the genre.

The beer poured well, a very dark ale with a nice creamy bubbly head that settled to a 2mm thickness and then displayed good retention.

The nose was dominated by well fired malts, dried & roasted figs and molasses. Plenty of fragrance.

The roasted malts completely dominated the taste initially but these gave way to a bitter lingering aftertaste, the complete opposites did not work well together, in my opinion, for this beer.

The mouthfeel was very light, given this was a dark Scottish ale it should have produced a beer that could have been taken as an alternative to lunch, but instead it was very watery. Not my style of beer, but this was not a good example of dark Scottish ale. Go for Dark Munro or Black Cullin for a better alternative.