MacCoy's Scotch Ale
Raccoon River Brewing Company

Brown color with pretty significant orange-red highlights. Solid foam of tightly packed bubbles kept its shape and size for a while, enough to impact the aroma. Which I had a hard time detecting. Dark, overripe fruit; malty aromas basically but not very Scotch in character, and a little sour to boot.

The flavor was overly sweet for me, throwing off my metrics for the style. Sour, mushy apples, thin and watery. Lots of carbonation pushes the flavor off the tongue. I barely finished this one.

First things first. MacCoy's is not a Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy, not even close. Scottish Ale is much closer to the mark, even if it doesn't much resemble one of those either.

Orange-infused walnut brown that became glowing crimson when held up to the only light source available to me, the guttering candle that sat in the center of my bar table. The head was the color of the center of a malted milk ball and was better than the average brewpub lid. There was decent glass residue as well. Razor-thin sheets developed Swiss cheese holes with time and drinking.

The aroma was lacking in... uh... aroma... and resembled those brown mushy apples that you try not to step in when going to the orchard in late autumn. Okay, maybe a little better than that, but that was the gist of it. Sorta brown aleish, slightly sour, not smoky at all (despite the brewpub's claim that a certain percentage of smoked malt was used). Not very Scottish, laddy.

MacCoy's tasted a good bit like it smelled, 'cept better. Undermalting, as with most beer in this town, was its biggest fault. The flavor was dominated by apples. Bruised, brown, unspiced, marginally more bitter than sweet... apples. With more malt and more sweetness it might have resembled Apple Brown Betty or Apple Crisp or Apple Slump or whatever your regional variation of that dessert happens to be called.

The mouthfeel felt like it would firm up by the bottom of the pint, but never really did. It stayed light-medium throughout, probably favoring the former, and didn't allow the flavor to linger very long on the palate. Not only was it light years from wee heavy territory, it was on the low end for a Scottish ale.

MacCoy's Scotch Ale (named after the brewer, DavidCoy) is the most apple-like non-apple beer that I've ever had. With more body and more sweetness it could be a contender. Exactly what title it would be competing for is a mystery. Best Apple Slump Beer in Iowa? I doubt that I'll ever drink this one again.

This is one where the drinkability was pretty good, as it was quite pleasant, but just not one that really wowed me overall. It was a nice dark red color with a bit of a head, but left no lace. The aroma was not very notable but it was very smooth in texture. There was some roastyness to the taste, but overall rather mild. A bit more flavor than their homestead red. This is another one I would recommend to those who are usually macro drinkers and think Killian's is something special. This will give them a bit more flavor and they probably will not object to it. It was appropriately malty but nothing extreme. Just easy to drink overall.