Highland Scoundrel
4th Tap Brewing Co-op

Poured from a can into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a caramel brown color with a tiny fizzy tan colored head. The head fades very fast leaving just a trace of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is huge of a sweet caramel and brown sugar smell with a decent hit of a brown bread smell. Along with these aromas comes some notes of a toffee and a little bit of a dark fruit smell of cherry and raisin.
Taste – The taste begins with a very sweet and malty taste with lots of caramel and brown sugar and a good hit of toasted brown bread flavor. These flavors create a base taste for the brew and persist throughout the flavor profile. All the while some light raisin tastes as well as a touch of a toffee and warming boozy taste of a rum like flavor comes to the tongue. At the very end a little bit of a cherry sweetness and some graininess and herb come to the tongue, leaving one with a very sweet dark sugar and warming taste overall.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is rather average in thickness and creaminess with a carbonation level that is rather average. A little more thickness and creaminess may have been slightly better for the style, tastes, and abv., but overall the feel was pretty decent.
Overall – A very sweet and nice warming scotch ale. Big flavors and warm feels make it a very nice sipper.

Had it from tap into a tall tulip glass. Golden brown with nice head and lacing. Slight sweet boozy smell and taste. A bit too fruity for a wee heavy, also a bit light on the feel. Not a bad beer but not great.

 

 

I like a good scotch ale every now and again, bought a single of this and not real impressed. Has hints of fruit on the nose and taste (when cold) that I don’t expect from this style. I will stick to Real Ale Real Heavy when the mood strikes next time.

Smoked malt shined as it warmed and wasn’t a bad touch.

 

$ 4.36 (Including tax and discount)/12 oz can ($ 0.363/oz) from Spec’s #100, DeZavala, San Antonio, TX. Reviewed 12/3/18.
Undated can. On shelf in the store. Stored at 42 degrees and served at 54 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.5.
Body – Brown-amber, opaque. When held to the light, amber and translucent.
Head – Average (Maximum 2.2 cm, aggressive center pour), light tan, medium density, average retention, diminishing to a four to six mm ring and a thin complete layer.
Lacing – Fair – Narrow bands of tiny to small bubbles, connected by squat columns of bubbles.
First pour – Light amber, clear.
Aroma – 4 - Malt, VERY faint smoke.
Flavor – 3 - Begins moderately sweet and malty but becomes less sweet as it warms. Smoke becomes evident in the bitter aftertaste clinging to my hard palate. No alcohol (10 % ABV!), no hops, no diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3 – Thin, slightly more creamy than watery, soft carbonation.
Impression and interpretation – 3 – A very average take on a wee heavy. The initial maltiness becomes submerged in the acrid burning moss flavor. Smoke, if used discreetly, can enhance some beer flavors. In this case, it doesn’t. One and done.

 

Pours a very nice deep, amber and dark copper. Poured medium-hard into a tulip glass and got virtually zero head.

I’d think of this as a good scotch ale for beginners. Very easy drinking and there’s little clue of the higher ABV. Compared to some other “stronger” tasting scotch ales, this one is an easy sipper. I don’t taste it as overly sweet some other reviews but of course it’s a sweet beer. Fairly dry finish considering what it is and seems to disappear quickly after each sip. The mouth feel is superb being fairly thick and creamy.

This is something that I would buy again and definitely something that I’d use to introduce a newbie to the style.

A: Pours a clear, but dark amber/brown color. A two finger beige head forms with good retention and some lace left behind.
S: Right up front is a sweet toffee/caramel aroma, that also reminds me of hard candy. Fairly one noted, and shows itself all at once, but enjoyable enough.
T: Like the nose, big cloying sweetness. Toffee/caramel, that hard candy like sugary flavor. Kind of like burnt molasses as well. Again, it shows itself all at once, and becomes one noted.
M/O: A full body that is sticky, chewy, and resin like. Low carbonation, but fairly smooth. The alcohol is really well hidden, but the one noted and sickly sweet character makes this a bit of a chore for me to finish.

This is definitely sweet, and cloyingly so. While, not something I am going to come back to a lot, I can see this being an OK every once in a while purchase. When in the mood, I just don't see me being in the mood all that often for this. While Real Ale Real Heavy, or Ale Smith Wee Heavy are both big sweet beers in the same style, there is a much more nuanced malt character that I really enjoy with those. I don't get that here.

 

way overhopped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at the brewery taphouse yesterday, so no full review but here's what I recall...

Poured a syrupy caramel color with beige head. Decent lacing. Smelled sweet like molasses, taste was also sweet but not overly with nice woody, peaty taste. good, full and creamy body.

Overall, it was really nice and ridiculously easy to drink for 11%. Will definitely revisit if I get back to 4th Tap soon.