Blackfriar
Inveralmond Brewery Ltd., The

Aug, 2007: 500 ml bottle, at Blackfriars, Glasgow. ABV is 7.0%. Voted "Champion Beer of Scotland" - was it in 2004 or something? Beautiful dark amber colour, moderate head. Oaky sherry-like aroma with raisiny notes. Oaky / woody flavour where the alcohol is noticeable, but not too sweet. Bitter finish.

Pours clear copper in color with a thin tan cap that dissipates quickly, minimal lacing. Aroma is dark fruits and caramel. Flavor is caramel, figs and raisins. Feel is a bit thin but well carbonated. Nice beer that I'll look for.

 

 

 

From bottle, Pours murky brown with virtually no head very little soapy bubbles. Aroma dark fruits, plums, butterscotch, figs. Taste toffee, caramel, dark fruits. Very enjoyable.

 

Red-ish amber color, big head that falls nicely. Aroma and taste more pine than citrus or other fruit, bitter dry finish. Medium body, style right.

Poured 330 mL bottle best before Apr 2016 into a standard pint glass. Copper colored with little head that faded away rapidly. Smell is of dark fruits, dates, plum, raisin. Taste is heavy on the same fruits with nice malts, delicious. Carbonation light-medium. I am sad it is gone..

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poured a translucent copper with a thin white head that dispersed quickly. The nose has a strong dark fruit, prunes, figs and dates, nose as we'll as some dark sugar and malt notes with zero hops to be found. A lot of those same flavours are in the taste along with some roasted nut and bready notes. There is a hint of bitter hops in the back end of the finish. It had a nice medium body with just the right amount of carbonation. A nice scotch ale that was quite enjoyable.

 

 

330ml bottle, day 13 of the 2014 Craft Beer Advent calendar - so this is a sort-of monk-adjacent Scottish ale?

This beer pours a clear, medium bronzed amber hue, with two fingers of puffy, lazily foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some low-lying rocky shoreline lace around the glass as it slowly recedes.

It smells of musty, sugary fruit - kind of like that stuff they jam into fruitcake - semi-sweet bready caramel malt, a bit of yeasty phenols, muddled bruised drupe fruit, a touch of sour cherry, and herbal, leafy hops. The taste is grainy caramel malt, a touch of toffee pudding, broad black fruit notes - plum, date, and maraschino cherry - subtle bittersweet cocoa and cafe au lait, a hint of butterscotch, orange marmalade, faint smoked peat, and more staid leafy, herbal hops.

The bubbles are quite engaging in their coy frothiness, the body a dense medium weight, and mostly smooth, with perhaps a bit of acrid fruitiness, and a burgeoning booze warmth taking it down a notch. It finishes off-dry, the complex malt and various aged fruit essences swirling about a musty hoppiness.

An interesting, and generally drinkable Scottish Ale, with lots going on, and even exhibiting a few Old Ale impressions along the way. I'm guessing that the dark monks of titular lore would find this appropriately "braw 'n nae peely-wally".

I will begin with a caveat - I love this style of beer, but this is the first one that is actually brewed in Scotland. The packaging is great and it looks very nice - perhaps lighter in color than I expected. The head dissipated quickly and it remained active throughout my sampling. There are many layers of flavor here - dark fruit, caramel
malt and a toffee sweetness. Another winner from my Craft Beer Advent calendar!

 

 

Day 13 of the BeerAdvent calendar.

Pours a nice copper colour with a white head that dissipates quickly and leaves a lace ring.

Nose has candied fruit, plum, sour cherry, and spice.

Taste is smooth and follows the nose. This tastes like Christmas pudding.

Outstanding!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second brew from the Inveralmond Brewery is Blackfriar, and firstly I must say I love the sound of this ale - dark, brooding and powerful like a good beer should be. Plus there's a picture of a druid making shit in a pot, implying that druids might kick back and sip this brew whilst preparing for their next animal transformation... who doesn't like druids? No one!

Poured from a 500ml bottle into a nonic pint.

A: A deep murky amber body with a sticky off-white head that dissipates to a lace ring.

S: Brandy note upfront followed by dark fruits such as; plum, raisin and fig. Finishes with buttery diacetyl and a hint of herbal hops. So far it's a festive ale we have here.

T: That buttery diacetyl is very prominent in the flavour, along with tastes of macerated figs, caramel malts, Brandy, bread yeast and the finish is a slight herbal hop note. Smooth, balanced and with more butterscotch than you can fit into a packet of Werther's Originals.

M: Medium bodied with a light UK pub style carbonation.

D: Top marks for fitting this much diacetyl in a brew. The flavours mix well and it's a decent Scottish ale. Does it compete with the likes of Skull Splitter? Depends on if you like more of a butterscotch flavour or more of a stronger more balanced ale. My money is definitely with Skull Splitter though this is a semi-reasonable substitute.

Food match: Did someone say butterscotch pudding? No, it's not sweet enough for that, however it would match a nice Medieval banquet with roasted pheasant, terrine of game meats, confit of duck and spiced roasted pig on a spit.

 

Poured from a 500ml standard pressure-cap bottle into a pint glass in high elevation Kalispell, Mont.

A- Two-finger off-white head atop a walnut colored body. Active carbonation, long retention, great lacing. Fine looking beverage.

S- Surprisingly tangy, roasted malts. Aromatic but not too floral.

T- Roasty, sweet malt body. Tangy, tasty.

M- Rich, smooth body with a bit of a carbonation tang.

O- I didn't describe this beer well. It's good, but it's hard for me to tell you why.