Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today (17/03/2013) is the day when most pubs would definitely try to sell even more, and more, and more... Guinness; I'm not buying it. I'm celebrating this lovely day with a local Kentish brewery's stout - Sheperd Neame's Double Stout, itself brewed to mimick an Irish Dry Stout. 

Sláinte, everyone!

Shepherd Neame, Double Stout, 4.0%abv. (Irish Dry Stout)

Coming in a clear 500ml bottle, BB Feb. 2012, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. Notes: ingredients include three coloured malts, roasted barley, and East Kent hops.

4/5 Appearance: nearly black in colour with some caramely hues, coming with a thick, frothy, well-lasting light tan head and rather light carbonation.

3.5/5 Smell: the smell comes lightly sweet chocolaty, roast/coffee-ish malty, toasted-grainy, plus a touch of ashy Goldings hops and sour-ish black dates, while random notes of sweet coffee are scattered in the background. Pretty pleasant.

4/5 Taste: very roasty in the light-bodied foretaste, followed by immediately manifesting flows of bitter hops and malt-roastiness; the bitter-sweet coffee-ish aftertaste lingers well, along with a very good depth of herbal-ish bitterness, lending a chewy, dry and thirst-provoking finish. The sour-ish edge typical for an English Stout is very restrained here, leaving the consistently bitter palate to shine.

3.5/5 Mouthfeel & 4/5 Overall: medium-bodied for 4.0%abv., this lightly-carbonated double stout has a quite straight forward flavour and a very good roast-bitter profile, without going thin in the long, bitter aftertaste. This is a thirst-quenching stout to me - definitely in the style of Irish Dry Stout and wonderfully so!

--Yau (tasted 13/03/2011, revisited 17/03/2013, notes transcribed 17/03/2013)