Skye Tarasgeir
Isle Of Skye Brewing Co.

Didn’t have nearly enough smoke flavor

 

If you like your beer to have a whiff of silage, this is the brew for you.

Otherwise, avoid.

States: Smokey, dry, peat smoked malt.. should say made using burnt horse shit.

Looks good, sounds good, tastes like a dead man’s arsehole

 

 

Bottle from Aldi, part of their Spring Scottish beer fest. Has an 18month BBE - is everyone who is using Williams Bros new bottling line using 18 months now? :)

Pours crystal clear amber

Light peat smoke on the nose, some fruity hop and a bit of sweetness. Quite inviting

Much smokier in the taste but not overdone. Mild bitterness, bit of fruitiness, light body and medium carb makes it seem lighter again

A good smoked pale ale, a hard beer to do well especially with peat smoke which can be all too overbearing. Reminds me a bit of having a hauf an a hauf with a peated whisky as you go from the first drink to the next. Very easy drinking and at only 4% quite light in strength

The smokiness fades a bit towards the end of the bottle

A friend of mine brought me a bottle of this back from Scotland recently. I've been holding onto it for a few months and finally decided to open it tonight. This is my first "smoked" beer experience. Immediately after opening the bottle I put my nose to it for a whiff. I could smell the smoked peat right off. Peat has a very distinctive odor, not unpleasant but not a familiar one, to me at least. Ale poured slightly cloudy with orange-red coloring. Nice head & lacing that hung on to my pint glass for awhile. The taste was a bit of a strange one, sort of sour metallic mixed with a birch bark flavoring. It definitely grew on me the more sips I took. The mouthfeel can best be described as dry tartness. I cannot compare this to other smoked ales but I have to give credit to the Scots for creating a very unique ale here. Like nothing I've ever had before. I'd love to visit the Isle of Skye someday, and I'd definitely seek out their brewery.

 

From the bottle:
Tarasgeir is brewed using peat-smoked malt from the Ardmore Distillery, which we thank. This imparts a delicate smoky aroma and wonderful burnt peat flavour to this unique ale. This lingers well into the aftertaste.

A tarasgeir is the Gaelic name for a "peat iron", which is used for cutting peat.

Cloudy and light amber in color. Modest start to the head, but it lasts. Good blanketing lace where the ring shows up after every sip.

The taste shows plenty of peat smoke. A dry brew with a proper level of hop to balance. Moderate body and carbonation. There's a thin beer finish; it's basically all smoke after the swallow. I detect a flash of hop bitterness in the swallow.

I do not detect the smokiness. Instead, this smells very much like a pale ale. Surprisingly, there's plenty of alcohol to the nose. On the third whiff, I detect a subtle hint of smoke from peat, which is quite different from wood smoke.