Ben Nevis
Black Wolf Brewery

 

Purchased at the Lidl supermarket, coming in a 500ml brown bottle; BB 09/2014, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass. It is self-styled an “India Pale Ale”, well, we’ll see what “type” of IPA this beer purports to be.

A: pours a loudly hissing dark reddish chestnut brown body, with the beige beer head disappearing in no time, while the carbonation remains constant and fine.
S: sweet raisiny malty as well as lightly stinky earthy/peaty/hay-ish notes upfront are underlined by lightly roasted nuts, caramelised chestnuts, melted brown sugar, and attenuated aroma from ripe-plummy hops. Despite the level of sweetness, the slightly toasty aroma seems to lift the weight by stealth, not unlike the way a Rauchbier works.
T: bitter-sweet toasty malts manifest with a light stinky edge of earthy-peatiness, toasted chestnuts, faint raisins or dried berries, then a mildly chewy hop bitterness chimes in to render a bitter-sweet and interestingly roasty-dry finish, not without a healthy dose of acidity to render a rough balance.
M&O: the loose carbonation is always a bit in the way of full appreciation of this low-gravity, lightly-bodied, but interestingly flavourful ale; to label itself an IPA is, well, very very misleading, but as a Scottish Ale it doesn’t lose its charm, at least to someone who hasn’t got much experience with this beer style!

Copper coloured beer with a decent off-white head from bottle with freshness date Jan 2014. The nose is unusual for an IPA, rather chalky and herbal with a smoky hint of roasted malt. The taste is hinted at by the taste: this isn't sweet at all. It's slightly smoky with a creaminess and an acidic edge which gradually becomes more herbal. I quite like this, but it's not very representative of the style.

 

500ml bottle - with a BB of Feb 2014, and 4% ABV - really?

This beer pours a slightly hazy medium bronzed amber hue, with one finger of foamy, thinly bubbly pale beige head, which leaves some pillar-esque lace around the glass as it duly recedes.

It smells of biscuity, nutty caramel malt, a bit of pithy citrus, and decently bitter leafy, floral hops. The taste is nutty, weakly bready malt, a muted generic citrus edge, and a prominent flinty, somewhat metallic essence, which seems overbearing, until a leafy, earthy hoppiness breaks me out of its seemingly permanent grip.

The bubbles are damned near absent, the body medium-light in weight, and mostly smooth, but sporting a sneaky, pithy, and cloying nature that is a bit hard to outright dismiss. It finishes off-dry, verging on the sweet, as the hops kind of book it nearly out of existence, lingering only ethereally, leaving the muddled malt, and persistent metallic notes to present a case.

Not exactly a prototypical example of the the IPA, even for the laid-back, original source, blah blah blah English variety. While nothing is really 'off', there's enough underwhelming pap to warrant pitching this to the also-ran bin. Not worthy of a repeat, and hardly reflective of the highest mountain in the British Isles.