1488 Strong Ale
Tullibardine Distillery

pours a very dark brown with a tan head. Clear.

Smells of fresh bready malts, peat, and hints of vanilla toffee.

Slightly caramelly malt, with a dose of gentle creamy chocolate, and a slight note of peat. No noticeable hop characteristics, very light bittering. A little boring.

Medium-light mouthfeel.

Drinkability is so-so - the beer is a little too boring to maintain interest.

500ml bottle. Felt like a little whiskey, felt like a little beer, and what do we have here?

This beer pours a clear, deep ruby amber colour, with two skinny fingers of weakly bubbly and soapy beige head, which leaves a bit of random seaspray lace around the glass in its short wake.

It smells of lightly roasted, thin caramel malt, some wooden oakiness, oily nuts, herbal, earthy peat, and rather understated musty hops. The taste is nutty toasted pale and sour caramel malt, a bit of general pithy woodiness, soft wet smoke, dirty, dusty peat, and some herbal, leafy, and somewhat medicinal hops.

The carbonation is quite plain and ineffectual, the body medium-light in weight and fairly smooth. It finishes mostly sweet, the caramel malt still standing out over the waning wood, peat, smoke and mildly bitter earthy hops.

An adequately quaffable brown ale, tinged with Scotch whisky barrel notes. Kind of boring though, with a standard ABV, and little to make me interested in another bottle. Looks like I got my little bit of whisky, and a little bit of beer.

500ml bottle poured into pint glass nov18 2009

A crystal clear brownish maroon with a fast falling fingers worth of head that left no lace

S some caramel,a little nutty with a little bit of smokey earth

T as it smells but with a little hops and some mild chocolate

M medium bodied with decent carbonation

D overall this is an interesting beer worth trying for sure

not sure how this is a strong ale at 5% but I enjoyed it nonetheless

This one seems to skirt the fence a bit, not quite a high enough abv% to comfortably sit as a strong ale, however nowhere in the ballpark appearance-wise to remotely be confused for a pale ale. At first the flavour seems more like a brown, but in the end enough complexity to nod back to the "strong ale" listing on the label.

From a 500ml brown bottle, it pours out a deep translucent ruby brown with bright garnet highlights. Tall creamy beige head that settles to a thick tight cap.

Toasted, nutty, waferish malt on the nose, subtle wood notes, very light crisp grassy hops.

Pleasant nutty, toasted caramel flavour, faint sourness in the middle from aging in the whiskey cask, with a smooth warm nutty and woody finish, slight dry caramel, with a lingering aftertaste of peat and smoke. The intensity is rather contained, yet this was still more complex than I had anticipated based on sampling the original 1488.

Mouthfeel is on the lighter side, yet with a silky smooth texture that does the whole experience justice, and can easily turn this "strong ale" into a session beer.

My lasting impression is that of a brown ale with more personality and complexity than they usually come, or that of a lightweight strong ale that nonetheless has some merits and is completely and utterly inoffensive. To step outside the boundaries of style this is a mild yet enjoyable dark ale, and one that I look forward to visiting again from time to time.