Try'd N Tested
Harviestoun Brewery

Purchased at the Sainsbury's supermarket, this beer is a limited edition in celebration of the Rugby World Cup 2007. BB FEB 08, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: copperish hue, poured with a thickly fluffy light beige foam with pretty good retention, on top of semi-lively and constant carbonation.
S: semi-rich malty and aromatic at the same time, featuring caramel+amber malts, tea-ish roastiness, burned nuts, and Fuggle-lie pear-ish aroma. Every element is right and mixed rather nicely.
T: the bitter-sweet taste of roasted malts and nuts with a lightly spicy edge prevails from the beginning, slowly a quite deep and lengthy flow of herbal bitterness of hops with a mildly sour edge of berry-fruits takes over (but exactly "blackcurrent overtones"? I don't know...), rendering a quiet but considerably bitter and dry (for a malty bitter, that is) aftertaste.
M&D: overall the flavour is pretty decent, benefiting a lot from the hop performance that lends more weight and depth to the overall flavour; alas, the carbonation comes a bit too lively and someitmes sharp for my palate, otherwise this can be a super-quaffable ale. It just might be a winner if it ever had a cask version! BTW, it's more like a Premium Bitter than a Scottish Ale to me.

Appearance: dark brown, good clarity, thick layer of spongey tan foam, great head retention, specs of lace

Aroma: leather, pear skin, roasty malt

Flavor: medium-sweet malt backbone; slight acidity with a berry fruitiness; late-hitting firm hop bitterness at the back of the throat; finishes dry with a lingering bitterness

Mouthfeel: medium body, pert carbonation, slight astringency

Other comments: The label says there's "black current overtones". Didn't get that at first, but I suppose it's there.

500ml bottle, served chilled in a pint glass

Pours with a rich dark copper body, some rich mahogany hues. Thick fairly dense off white head with good retention. Some snake like lines of lacing

Smell, rich sticky malt, caramel and toffee. Some fresh aromatic english hops, lots of fresh wort character too

Taste, crisp and biscuity malt. Pretty sizeable hop profile for a beer of this style, smooth bitterness, lots of sticky caramel and toffee apple notes. Some nice hop bitterness on the finish

This beer is a limited run made for the Rugby World Cup 2007, its available at Sainsburys stores at the moment. A tasty offering, essentially an over hopped scotch ale its well worth a look