Licensed to Yill
Level Beer - 1 Brewery & Beer Garden

First, I gotta talk about the name. "Yill" is a Scottish variant of "ale", says Merriam Webster. It's also officially OK in Scrabble. It also means to chill. Very useful word, I'd say

What about the beer? It's a pretty classic Scotch Ale, dark brown with a nice tan head. It's got a peaty and malty aroma. The taste is the same, with some rich caramel, and some rye whiskey from the barrels used. This is not an intense beer, however, despite the whiskey barrel aging. There's some oak in the taste and a bit of rye, but those flavors meld well with the basic scotch ale, and don't dominate the flavor profile. It's a mellow beer, and well worth getting if you see it.

Pours a medium to dark reddish orange with a sparse head that dissipates to spots, but with light lacing. Aroma of heavy caramel malt, raisins, figs, hints of dried stone fruit and peat. Flavor is caramel malt, raisins, dark stone fruit, rye and peat. Residual rye and lingering peat smokiness in the finish. Medium bodied with light creaminess and good carbonation despite the near still pour. Although the body of this is clearly a Scotch ale, the overall profile is unique. The rye lightens the dense Scotch ale malt while the peat smokiness enhances it. Not quite like anything else I've had, a really appealing. The peating is deftly done, with clear character but not overwhelming the other flavors. The fruitiness of the malt is blended with no distinct fruit flavors dominating. I wouldn't have expected a rye treatment to this style to be so satisfying. Really different and flavorful. Recommended.