Armchair Scotch Ale
MacLean's Beer

Poured a 473ml can into a chalice. A scant one finger tan head on a clear reddish brown. The head rapidly diminished to a few thin rafts of head. minimal lacing.

A subdued aroma of sweet toffee and caramel. The taste is sweet malts up front. Toffee and caramel lead but do not dominate. the mildest of hop finishes.

Smooth and well balanced. medium body and light carbonation. A fine Scotch Ale, true to the style and worth a try. Very drinkable for such a high ABV beer.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From The Roundhouse Centre LCBO on Howard Ave. in nearby Windsor. No date stamp or lot number. My 4th beer from the Thornbury, Ontario brewery, and for 2025. Adored by Sundae the cat...

May 9 2025

 

Beautiful Dark Color with a nice 1 inch head. Smells malty and tastes ok too.
Something about it feels average. Maybe not much of a body.

i would like to think that there is something about scotch ales that i dont get.

 

 

 

 

 

Pours dark cherry amber with a small but long lasting patchy head. Malts and stewed fruits in the nose. Malts in all forms fill the first sip - fruity, peaty, roasty, butterscotch, grainy. Light bitterness and a shadow of hop aroma. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a light carbonation. Rum cake, berries, toffee and a bit of booze in the finish.

A nice Scotch Ale but not as full bodied as I'd like. Still worth a try.

Appearance: Poured with a thumb of head that actually stay around for a good period of time but didn't lace much. The beer is a translucent brown that turns more copper when held up to the light that boast ample albiet thin carbonation.

Smell: Ample toffee malt with touches dates, molasses, shortbread biscuits and a barest note of charred smokey oak. Good potency that doesn't need warming to come out.

Taste: Ample toffee malt with sweet molasses that is properly restrained by a proper touch of chestnuts, booziness and smoke which builds and takes over with a bitter kick of leafy and earthy hops.

Mouthfeel: Transistioning is very good, the carbonation seems to pan out near the end of the beer somewhat lightening the bitter end, but I'm ok with that. Aftertaste is a mild malt with that smokey hint so quite good. Only complaint is it has a slight buttery texture to it that throws me a bit off, but it's a minor complaint.

Drinkability: On the heavier end of medium bodied where a Scotch ale should be, although it seems a bit deceptive about that fact as I expected it to be a bit lighter. Really do lament that buttery note and lack of carbonation over time, but refreshing and certain a great offering.

Final Thoughts: I didn't realize I had this in the back of my fridge when I reviewed this, and I suppose I am doing a bit of a disservice by reviewing this in the summer. Really, this is a Fall and Winter drinker and a damn good one at that. Looking forward at stopping in at Hanover when I go up to Owen Sound this year in October.

I look for this beer every fall, when it is released. Distribution starts in November and by February it's sold out. This micro brewer has limited capacity and a few other beers to brew year round. But this is the beer I love. High alcohol and very malty Scotch Ale that really satisfies when the temperatures drop.

 

 

 

 

500 mL bottle procured at the local LCBO; best before Mar 24 2016 and served slightly chilled. This is the first time I've seen anything from this brewery being sold in Sarnia, but hopefully its appearance represents a harbinger of beers to come.

Pours a lovely ruby-copper colour; clear in complexion and capped off with a full inch of frothy, light beige-tinged head that shows good retention. It eventually settles into a thin, creamy-looking cap flanked by a foamy collar and a continuous curtain of lacing - there's no denying that this is a pretty attractive-looking ale. Interesting aroma too; I'm getting some significant toffee, treacle, raisin and date fruit sweetness, as well as toasted biscuits, roasted nuts, earthy dead leaves, leather and a hint of woodsmoke. The alcohol barely becomes perceptible as the glass warms. Off to a strong start so far.

Quite rich-flavoured, with an array of malty flavours proving to be the most dominant features of the profile. Elements of toffee, brown sugar and molasses are all abundantly present, mingling beautifully with subtler hints of fig and date fruitiness. A tad on the nutty side, with notes of leafy, earthy hops and faint smokiness tying things up at the finish. The ethanol warmth comes through in the aftertaste, but not in an overbearing manner - rather, it blends nicely with the lingering flavours of toasted malt, leather and caramelized sugar sweetness. On the fuller side of medium-bodied, with extremely light carbonation levels that result in a smooth, soft feel on the palate.

Probably the most impressive MacLean's products I've tried to date, their Armchair Scotch Ale is an unassuming British-style strong ale that is sure to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold autumn/winter night. It is unapologetic in its application of richly saccharine malt flavours - it's a beer that has nothing to hide, and doesn't bother trying, which is a good way to approach this style. Not perfect, but very easy to like, and something that I would both recommend and return to again. Good stuff. (Original Grade: 3.92)

[Updated Jan 31 2025]

473 mL can from the LCBO; coded Dec 23 2024 and served barely chilled. MacLean's closed their brick & mortar facility in 2023 and is now a contract brewery. After a brief stint at the Collingwood Brewery, MacLean's ales are now brewed at the nearby Thornbury facility, which has more capacity.

Reading over my review from nine years ago, I feel like I might've overrated Armchair Scotch Ale. Perhaps the recipe has changed since 2015, but I suspect it's more likely that my own palate has drifted over the last decade - the last time I tried this was in 2020 (thanks Untappd), and even then the shine had started to wear off. It's still a fairly good Scotch-type ale, and the gist of my review remains accurate, but at the end of the day, I've had considerably better.

Final Grade: 3.84, a B+

500ml bottle into snifter. "03/24 2016". consumed nov 12 2015

a: transparent deep copper, almost ruby, with dark tan head

s: sweet and malty as expected. strong caramel/brown sugar/toffee, butterscotch. something vaguely smoky in here too

t: follows the nose. just a constant wave of malt flavours all the way through -- big brown sugar, caramel, toffee, butterscotch flavours. the finish has the smoky character which is a bit more pronounced, and it comes off as woody in taste. medium, almost medium-plus bitterness

m: medium-ish body, a bit on the light side, with low carbonation. definitely not watery though

o: a really tasty and enjoyable scottish ale, my first of the style (excluding a few wee heavy beers i've had). hops are the craze these days but i'm also a sucker for big malt flavours