Wee Heavy Scotch Ale
Tri-City Brewing Company

12 ounce bottle into snifter, no bottle dating. Pours hazy dark brown color with a small dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big raisin, prune, fig, date, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, brown bread, light herbal/leather, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Nice aromas with good balance and solid complexity of dark/bready malt, fruity yeast, and light earthy hop notes; with good strength. Taste of big raisin, prune, fig, date, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, brown bread, light nuttiness, light herbal/leather, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light herbal bitterness/fruity yeast tartness on the finish; with lingering notes of dark fruit, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, brown bread, and yeast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Good robustness/balance and solid complexity of dark/bready malt, fruity yeast, and light earthy hop flavors; with a good malt/bitter/tartness balance, and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Some dryness as well. Light carbonation and medium body; with a very smooth, fairly creamy, and lightly slick mouthfeel that is okay; very thin for the style. Alcohol is well hidden with only a light warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very solid Wee Heavy. All around good robustness/balance and solid complexity of dark/bready malt, fruity yeast, and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to sip on for the ABV. Likely that this bottle is 4-5 years old, but it held up well. Very mild oxidation. A fairly enjoyable offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a huge fan of Wee Heavies, so I was happy to find one I hadn't tried...
And then I tried it. Yuck. I took one sip and almost spit it out. I decided to take a second just in case something I had eaten before had messed with the flavor of the first drink or perhaps it was skunked. Nope- Still awful and I'm sure it was meant to taste the way it did. It was sweet yet oddly sour at the same time and smelled the same way. It had a lighter mouth feel than I expected as well. I honestly poured this beer down the sink. What a disappointment.

 

 

Wee Heavy pours an attractive dark brown color that has a great clarity and a nice deep red hue when held up to a light. The head is beige and what it lacks in volume it makes up with great retention and lacing.

The aroma is very malty as is to be expected. Tons of caramel malt sweetness blended with some bready notes and a bit of toffee.

The flavor follows the nose very closely, but with even more of the caramelized flavors coming out. This is a very sweet and rich brew and while some alcohol is appreciable, it is nothing too over the top.

The mouthfeel is just reaching what I would call full and his a great richness and smoothness to it. The finish is long and sweet with plenty of caramel malt character.

Overall I am pretty impressed with this brew. It tastes true to style and is very clean and well made. I think I would still take a Dirty Bastard or SkullSplitter if I had the choice, but this is a very decent and scotch ale.

I picked up a bottle of Tri-City Brewing Company's Wee Heavy Scotch Ale a few days ago for $2.89 at The Lager Mill. I was impressed with the last seasonal I had from Tri-City's, their Oktoberfest, so I decided to give this beer a try. No visible bottling date or alcohol %. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a snifter.

A- The label is pretty plain and typical for their seasonal ales. It poured a pretty clear light brown/amber color with a very thin layer of off white head that died down to really thin ring that stayed till the end. The color was nice but the head was disappointing.

S- This smells like a typical Wee Heavy. The first thing I notice is loads of medium sweet caramel malts that impart a nice brown bread aroma along with some sweet caramel. After that comes the dark fruits that help balance out the other aromas. This aroma is what I would expect from a this style.

T- The taste starts off with loads of caramel malts that have a high amount of medium sweetness to them and they impart a nice mixture of caramel and brown bread, the dark fruits seem to take a bask seat and don't stick out as much as they did in the aroma. Alcohol isn't that noticeable so I am guessing this may be in the 7% range. The finish is sweet with a low amount of bitterness and caramel and brown bread aftertaste that doesn't last long.

M- Somewhat smooth, a little cloying, medium bodied with a low amount of carbonation. It could use less sweetness and more carbonation.

Overall I thought this was an average Wee Heavy, it didn't have any off flavors but had a higher then normal amount of sweetness and it could have been much more balanced. The sweetness and the lack of balance really hurt the drinkability, one is enough for me, but the alcohol was hidden well. What I liked most about this beer was the aroma, it was on par for the style. What I liked least about this beer was the flavor, it was too unbalanced and sweet. I won't be getting this beer again, there are other Wee Heavys that are easily available, better tasting, and cheaper. I don't recommend this beer it isn't hard to find a better Wee heavy. This beer wasn't bad it was just pretty lackluster, it doesn't compare to some of the better Wee Heavy's. Founders Dirty Bastard is still my favorite Wee Heavy and it is cheaper and much better tasting. All in all I was disappointed with this Wee Heavy, which further enforces my theory that this brewery can be pretty hit or miss. My least favorite Wee Heavy so far.