Macfarlanes Scotch Ale
Silver City Brewery & Taproom

 

 

Look : Dark caramel body, very thin white head.

Smell : See taste.

Taste : Sweet caramel, peat, mild dark fruits. Mild nuttiness in the finish.

Feel : medium carbonation, medium-full body, slight alcohol burn. A tad sweeter than the normal Fat Scotch.

On draught at the Collins Pub, MacFarlanes Scotch(ish?) garnet with a small light tan head that quickly dissipates to a thin collar, leaving no lace.

Smell is pretty classic sweet Scottish maltiness, just a hint of acridness, perhaps ashy, not smoke though.

Taste is similar, this is pretty classic scotch ale, really nice malt flavor, just sweet and fruity enough. It's clearly strong then then those in the 3-4% range, but honestly, this is more 'traditional' in the longer sense, and it's smooth and satisfying. While I admittedly had a mildly smoked porter (Left Hand Back in Black II) before, I'm not getting any peat here, which is usually very assertive.

Mouthfeel is slick, on the lighter side, thought clearly malty, so not quite traditional, but again, reminiscent of.

Drinkability is pretty good. I haven't had a good Scottish ale in a well, which this one certainly is, at least as a regional interpretation (probably a Wee Heavy in Scotland). Surely the best Silver City I've had, much cleaner then I remember them, but I haven't had one in a few years.

Tasted a 5 oz. pour of this a couple weeks ago, when it was among a dozen 'mystery' beers in Concordia Ale House's Beer Brawl II. Still on tap (a fresh keg), so I got a pint this afternoon.

A: Dull, uncaptivating cola-brown. Tiny head and the slimmest ringing bubbles, lined up almost single-file. Held to light, its a nicer-to-behold deep chestnut, showing some slow-rising carbonation.

S: Sweetly spiced aroma of butterscotch, baked gingerbread, and sugar-glazed roasted nuts.

T: Lots of caramel, melded with that spicy butterscotch so evident in the aroma.

M: Reasonably carbonated, though pretty mellow compared with the vast majority of beer styles. A little slick/oily, the feel & weight seeming about 'medium'.

D: I thought highly of this when I first tried it and liked alot this time around. Approaching 7% abv, the alcohol is stealthy, the drinkability rather high. Enjoyable, an ale I'd certainly order again.

Appearance: Pours a hazy dark amber color with a modest head that drops quickly but does leave a nice pattern of lace

Smell: Caramel and butterscotch

Taste: Opens with a nice caramel candy flavor; after the swallow, however, the flavor washes out and becomes rather aqueous

Mouthfeel: Medium to full body but low carbonation

Drinkability: The lack of carbonation really drags down the drinkability scores

It’s tough serving as the “small” Scotch ale on a menu that also includes local legend Fat Bastard – a hearty Scotch-style ale with tremendous flavor, a solid local following. and two GABF gold medals under its belt.

That said, I was still somewhat underwhelmed by MacFarlane’s Scotch Ale, which displayed core properties but little more. It is deep auburn and clear with a light head. It’s peat elements are played with wise restraint and deliver a musty, earthen fruitiness with a cola nut finish. This is not a frightening creature from the peat bogs. Call it adequate but not exciting.

This is a tough one to review. I'm no expert on scotch ales, but while this is a good beer, it never screams scotch ale. The pour is brown mingled with crimson. Nice half finger of head to cap it off. Smallest bit of lacing. Nose is very sweet, but its an ill defined sweetness, and one dimensional to boot. Taste is sugary raisins, the smallest hint of caramel and toffee. If the toffee and caramel were a bit stronger this would be a nice representation of the style but they never take control. Mouthfeel is rich, rich cream. Nearly perfect.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great brew, I could drink this over and over. It would have to be classified something other than scotch ale though because I think that's a bit unfair to both scotch ales and this brew as well. Tasty .... but no scotch ale in my book.

Aroma is a combination of hot alcohol and peaty malt. The alcohol starts to fade after a few sniffs leaving behind light roast malt. No hops at all. I get a touch of diacetyl which is OK in scottish.

Deep Ruby clear with a small but persistant tan head.

Really malty flavor but nothing I'd associate with Scotttish ale. It has a vinuous character too. It doesn't have much roast malt or peaty character. There's some interesting fruity fermentation esters. There's also some noticeable alcohol.

Full bodied, nice carbonation level. Somewhat warming.

It's a really nice drinking beer. I like it a lot. Style-freaks won't like this. Dosen't have your typical scottish character. But it's a good, wel-made beer.

(post review, maybe this suffers from being in the bottle as other reviewers seem to have a much different impression of this than me.)

Wow. Scotch Whiskey gets its flavoring through smoke, and it's evident this beer shares that trait. A hint of smoke in the smell, and a light brown head when poured. This beer appears dark amber when held up to the light, but otherwise it's just black.

A very small bit of sweet (almost raisin-like), followed very quickly by wood-smoke (which almost hides the hops). The alcohol is a pretty harsh nip near the end, but leaves you wanting more.

Strangely enough, the Fat Bastard Scotch Ale from the same brewery (which has even more alcohol) is a smoother drink. If I could choose between the two, it'd be Fat Bastard hands down. Unfortunately, the demand is so high they rarely have enough to sell in my town (currently the shelf at the store holds a plenty of Whoopass IPA instead, mocking me).

Definitely a good brew, and it goes excellently with chocolate pudding cake.

Had straight from the tap at the brewery. Dark burgundy, purple in appearance. Not much light getting through this one. Nice contrast of thin white head on the dark beer.

This is sooo good. Definately a nightcapper, even though i'm reviewing this at noon on a Sunday afternoon.

Scotch is the flavor, and there is a hint of sweet which is quickly (thankfully) squashed by a smokey, charcoal woody flavor. The alcohol taste is hidden well here, but you can definately feel some warming effect. Decent lacing on the glass throughout as well.

* One note, the description here lists the beer as 6.8 abv. When it is actually listed at the brewery on their board and on in the menu as a 7.2. I'm fairly confident this should be listed as a 7.2.

0.26 gallon pop top jug reveals a dark brown colored fluid topped with a nice,thick brown head. Smells of caramel and smoked wood. The taste is malty sweet and smokey; the malt presense is huge. Has a just right medium body. Finishes with a sharp smoked, then mildly bitter alcohol taste.

Not as sweet as some scotch ales but the strong smoke flavors makes this brew stand out from the pack.

Appearance – A big based “glub glub glub” was the sound that came out of this .26 gallon growler as I poured it into my glass. I watched the pour carefully, too, because this one started to foam up like a banshee early on.

This is a very dark ruby-brown in color, much heavier than I’m used to for the style. The head as I said was monstrous. It left so much lacing going down that I couldn’t even see the inside of the glass. There was a little cup made of foam on top of my beer.

Smell – This thing filled the room at the pour. I opened up a bottle of McClellans for comparison purposes, and the aroma was very similar though not as strong. For a beer though this is strong as hell. It’s straight scotch.

Taste – There’s a light malt backbone to this one, but otherwise it’s nothing but scotch for sure. You could make an inverted nail from this batch. It’s supposed to be the lighter version of the Fat Bastard, but this would be hard to drink for anyone except the true scotch lover.

Mouthfeel – Exceptionally creamy and smooth. Ironically, the alcohol sting was worse on this than it was on the Fat Bastard. Otherwise, though, this big medium-bodied ale went down nicely.

Drinkability – I love scotch, so I really enjoyed this offering from Silver City. I could pour this over my Cheerios in the morning. This stuff was terrific.