Selkirk Grace
Selkirk Abbey Brewing Company

 

 

Bottle from Boise Co-op. Ice tea color, head fades fast to nothing. Big malty aroma, favors the earthy notes with a hint of sweetness. Smooth, silky body, caramel notes in taste, still malt at the forefront. Solid throughout.

Bottle picked up at the COOP... Clear amber.. big complex maltiness.. deep toast and plummy fruit.. hints of caramel and butter toffee.. sorta grapey on the finish.. very rich.. Still pretty drinkable.

3.5/3.75/3.75/3.75/3.75

Poured into a MacAndrew's thistle glass. Pours a medium orange-copper amber with a half finger white head with good retention and lacing. Aroma of sweet malt, orange and candied stone fruit and Belgian yeast. Flavor is mild caramel malt, sweet light and dark stone fruit, Selkirk Belgian yeast; finishes with light sweet fruit, a hint of smoke and a mild tea like bitterness. Medium bodied with light carbonation. The malt flavors are spot-on scotch ale, but there is more fruitness due to the house yeast, which really melds nicely with the scotch ale flavors. Not much peat smokiness, but a touch that seems to come in with the mild bitterness in the finish. I like a smoky scotch ale, but I still enjoyed this quite a bit. I'd like to see this one pumped up to a wee heavy ABV with a little more smoke. Until then, I'll be happy with this one.

22oz bottle purchased at Pilgrim’s in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for $6.99. At 6.5%, one of the less boozier Wee Heavies I’ve come across. Named for the Selkirk Grace, traditionally said at a Burns Supper, and heaven sent for when Selkirk Abbey decided to do a Scottish beer style:

Some hae meat an
canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae let the Lord be thankit


Poured into a River City snifter (I’ve actually purchased a couple from Selkirk Abbey, but they’ve wound up as gifts for other BAs), this was a reddish, dark amber color, semi-clear but a little chill-hazed. What head there was had the color of near-whiteness, and didn’t last long but was modestly agitatable. Virtually no lace.

Malty and sweet in the nose, but not insipid sweet. There’s some licorice-y, candyish elements to the aroma, but not to a point where it should be off-putting to most. Really, it smells like a textbook Wee Heavy.

While definitely a sweet beer when it hits the taste bud beach head, it’s not so sweet as to be cloying. There’s a subordinate, mild bitterness in the background that keeps things down to earth, while still imparting some complexity. While it doesn’t really hide what alcohol it does have, one thing that doesn’t show up is the strong booziness that is prevalent in some of its bigger style-mates, and comes out to play as they warm up. With this beer, things more or less stay the same as it warms up.

The body is between medium and full. The mouthfeel is coating, but perhaps not as much as some of the style.

When I first got home from buying this, the only review was a fairly negative one, so I was prepared for a letdown. I should have known better. Although I haven’t loved every Selkirk Abbey beer I’ve ever had, I’ve had awfully good luck with them, and this continues that track record. Not sure how Robert Burns would phrase it, but this is a very good beer, and I look forward to drinking more of them.

There's a high sweet note, but behind it there's a wonderfully complex mix of esters set off my mild smoke. A very interesting beer and since it's a malty style I wouldn't knock that licorice-like sweetness. Strongly recommend trying if you encounter it. If nothing else it's interesting.

Served On-Tap

A – Pours an extremely translucent medium amber color, head is extremely thin and bright white in color, minimal spotty lacing left behind.

S – Sweet, almost spoiled, sugary malt notes, very syrupy and almost cloying sweetness.

T – Some light brown sugar notes, some predominately sweaty malt notes and more subdued notes of spice and cloying malts.

M – Thin, light, extremely thin for the style.

O – An extremely light and overly sweet scotch ale, difficult to put it in that category, not a great beer from an otherwise wonderful brewery.