First Chop SYL Beer Review

I've got a celiac friend who really likes beer so I'm always on the look out for gluten free options, and I always give them a 0.5% bonus when it comes to ratings just because it's good to cater for all needs. First Chop SYL is a black IPA making it much more my type of beer than many of the others I've reviewed here. Anyway it appeared in the LIDL beer festival so at less than £2 a can i was never going to turn down the chanc eto try it.

Just for those of you that are interested in such things First Chop is a Manchester based brewery with a decent selection of beers nearly all of which are gluten free, they are also vegan, but that's much less unusual. They also cover pretty much all types of beer so if you are celiac or have a gluten intolerance keep an eye out for them. The SYL comes in a pretty striking black 330ml can with a hefty 6.2% alcohol content which certainly puts it in the fun zone. One word of warning with the First Chop SYL, and pretty much all the First Chop beers, they are very lively when poured so be careful not to lose any.

The beer pours pretty much as black as the can it comes in, which is just how I like it, with a large relatively dark head, there's quite a lot of fizz to this one but it does settle down eventually. The smell is quite appealing too, there's clearly plenty of hoppy goodness inside but you'll also get a sense of chocolate, and a pleasant, certainly not overpowering smoky aroma. Given that my ideal beers are dark and smoky SYL is looking like it'll tick nearly every box for me once it settles down.

The taste does a pretty good job of matching the aroma, there's a really nice chocolate feel to the beer, and sure enough there's a whiff of smoke in there too. On top of this there's also a good malty flavour I wasn't really expecting, and while the texture is very much that of a light IPA the taste is more akin to a good porter, so if you like the porter taste, but find them a little too rich and filling for a session this may well be your ideal beer. Personally I've found very few beers that are too filling for my tastes, but I'm not everyone, and this probably comes from discovering Guinness at an early stage in my drinking life.

SYL really does tick a lot of boxes for me, it's a genuinely good beer, with an excellent taste, and a percentage that packs a punch, my only real criticism is that it's just so lively at the start it could almost be a dark lager. Once it settles down though it's one of the best IPA's of any description I've had so First Chop have certainly done something right, and it's a rare dark gluten free beer so extra marks for that. I'm more than happy to give First Chop's SYL Black IPA an excellent 8.5/10.