Scupppered
Ales Of Scilly Brewery

I obtained this bottle from a mini-beershop in Brighton (nr. the famour "Lord Nelson" pub). It comes in 500ml brown bottle and is bottle-conditioned, with a BBE date of 8 March 06.

Served in a big tulip-shaped wine glass, it pours a dark copper colour with milky white beerhead which lasts for no more than twenty seconds... looking just o.k. for a bottle-conditioned ale.
Smells of sweetish nutty maltiness, like that of "barley-candy" as I had during my childhood (in Taiwan)--burned, maltiness comebined with intensive sugary note; in the background a refreshingly fruity hoppy scent does not go unnoticed.
On palate, it's extre...mly malty...reminiscent of aftertaste of hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts... what (nuts) have you! Not very sweet actually as its nose might suggest, it also has understated sourness of preserved berry fruits as a balancer. Also beneath is dryish, dark-chocolatey bitterness lingering in the throat.
Although the mouthfeel is a bit "flat" (as opposed to "vertical" rather than being bland as such), the body is almost rich and quite round as well. A truly solid, "nutty" brown ale made just 28 miles from "Land's End"!!
(P.S. Not the best name, "Scuppered", is it, for almost anything? esp. for an ale brewed on this south-western isle outside Cornwall surrounded by ferocious seas...?! Sometimes one just couldn't help admiring some clueless but pretty cool sense of black-humour of certain British people.)