Skelpt Lug
Cuan Mor / Oban Bay Brewery

330 ml bottle with a BB date of 3/2017 purchased in Oban.
Clear brown body with a decent head but minimal lacing.
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Aroma: dark bread with hops and hints of tea.
Flavor follows.
Medium body and carbonation.

 

Walking through the quaint town of Oban, Scotland on a sunny day, we popped into a local pub and found Skelpt Lug on pump draft. The name is Gaelic for "hit up the side of the head" as indicated by the art on the pump handle.

A rich, malt forward brew with mild hops, bread and butter mid-body, finishing somewhat like an ESB but milder. A fine brew through and through and especially so enjoying it in Oban on draft.

 

Poured from a 500mL bottle. Produced a quick head of creamy off-white head. Colour is a clear caramel brown with some visible carbonation. Has pretty solid retention and good lacing. 4

Smell has rich roasty malt and a hint of dark chocolate. Some aged citrus and vanilla wood notes, pear, strong caramel toffee sweetness, drying with a bit of toastiness, fairly succinct but pretty good. 4

Taste is malty and sweet, lightly milk chocolaty, then some fruity hops, fresh apple, finish is quite mild, caramel sweetness lingers but has a very clean finish, dry toffee. Sort of falls off a bit from the smell, it is quite a mild flavor profile, but the sweetness is fairly restrained which is good, shows more of the roast character but the hops don’t really come through that much. 3.5

Mouthfeel is mild, light bodied, with slight carbonation, it is a bit watery I find, lemon bitterness cleans up the aftertaste, otherwise a light roasty/malty ale. Very easy drinking to be sure but not that satisfying. Very clean and malty. 3.5

Not a bad 80 shil, easy drinking dark ale that is mild but not bland. Nice to try the local beers here in Oban but I won’t miss this one terribly. 3.5