Scottish Winter Ale
Highlander Beer

 

 

Poured into a MacAndrew's thistle glass. Pours a dark mahogany brown with little light transmission and a thin khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dry caramel and mild biscuit malt, dates and dried plums and a hint of smoke. Flavor follows with dry caramel malt with a suggestion of toastiness, light molasses, dates, raisins, mild peaty smoke and a touch of either mild hop or herbal bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with light creaminess. Covers all the bases I expect from a Scottish ale (listed here as a Scotch ale, but tastes to me like a Scottish ale as labeled). Subdued flavor, but quite nice dark fruit and malt with an excellent balance. The peat could be a bit more robust for my palate, but in the range for the style. A little underwhelming at the start, but won me over in the finish.

Poured from bottle into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a brown color with a one head of tan foam. The head fades rather fast to leave a tiny bit of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is big, roasty, and sweet with tons of caramel, brown sugar, molasses, and roasted malt. Along with these aromas comes a good showing of dark fruits of some raisin and plum as well as a tiny bit of herb and earth. Oh… and there is a rather decent boozy smell in there as well. Nice and warming…
Taste – The taste begins with very roasty malt flavor that has a modest sum of sweet sugary smells. The taste is lighter on the sweet then the nose would have let on, with the roastiness really ruling the show upfront. Some more sweetness of a dark fruit nature does enter the taste as it advances further, but at the same time, more roast and a bit of coffee and char come to the tongue. Hints of an earthy hop come at the very end of the taste, and with some lighter alcohol flavors (much lighter than the nose let on) it leaves one with a lightly sweetened and quite roasty and toasty taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel- The body of the brew is quite thick and chewy with a carbonation level that is low. For the big roasty flavors the feel is rather nice and creates a very big base for all the dark flavors to rest upon.
Overall – Robust and dark with some hints of booze and lighter sweetness of dark fruits and dark sugars. Overall I sorta like it because it is not over the top in sweetness, which a lot of scotch ales can be. While it won’t be a standard go to for me, it is a nice warmer for the cold winter months, warming you with the malt, booze, and roast.

Perfectly dark, opaque body. Small and very resilient tan head leaves no lacing.

Flavors are sweet malts, some clean hops, followed by appropriately. Very light, nice carbonation.

Pretty good