Young’s Special London Ale is a nice potent brew. It is of average colour, average smell and fairly average taste, with a good kick from its 6.4% ABV strength.
Actually, it’s not fair to call the taste “fairly average”. It’s better than that. But it isn’t all that special. It’s smooth and has the usual citrus undertones with a strong, hoppy bitterness. It’s nice and I am enjoying drinking it, but it isn’t up there with my favourites. Another standard ale well done, only stronger.
Interestingly, it is bottle conditioned. There is something fresh about bottle conditioned beers and it might be that which raises this beer above the average. Clearly further experiments are in order.
