Loch And Lode
Harvest Moon Brewery

Poured into a MacAndrew's thistle glass. Pours a slightly hazy, medium to dark brownish orange with a massive five finger khaki head with good retention and very nice lacing; a bit overactive in the pour. Aroma of dry caramel malt, a little smoke, cider, celery (sounds odd, but well within what I'd like to smell in this style). Flavor is dry caramel and bready malt, dried apples, brown bread and robust, dry smoke. Nice lingering smokiness in the finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess and a quite pleasant, silky mouth feel. Although there were interesting aromas in the glass, this is a very solid and authentic tasting Scottish ale. The smoke is drier, like a leaf bonfire rather than the more typical meat smoker character that a lot of Scottish and Scotch ales have. I like that meaty smoke, but this was a great flavor too and nice to taste with the Scottish malts. Scottish ales seem to be quite popular in Montana, with many of the breweries offering it as an option. I liked this one a lot and would get it again.

From notes taken 07/12/17:

Hazy ruby to brandy color, still what I’d call clear, with bubbles streaming up. Very fine and dense, though light, creamy-tan foam, about a finger, with good retention. Caramel, toast, booze, berries, and light vegetation on nose. Exquisite dark-fruity palate like plums, approaching vermouth and almost red wine vinegar but balanced out by toasty and metallic suggestions, with sharp but brief soapy and chemical finish. Full in body, semi-viscous with soft to tingly, sparse carbonation that flattens for the whole beer in about an hour. Moderate booze heat.

 

 

 

this tastes like liquid caramel with a touch of earthy smoke, and its quite delicious. drinkability is an issue here for me though, there is a ton of residual sugar and the beer is pretty strong. the combo keeps me just sipping, and it doesnt warm up particularly well. not that the alcohol is exposed or anything, its not, it just gets sweet and heavy in the belly and the buzz sets right in. i like how sweet the grains are though, its its best and worst feature in one. its true to style, and really buttery not in a diacetyl way, but it a richness way. there is a hint of smoke mid palate too thats really nice, not peaty like a scotch, but just enough to make it interesting. carbonation is huge, maybe even too much for the traditional style, but overall i like this quite a lot, and for the montana breweries who package, harvest moon has been one of the better in my limited experience.

 

 

16oz can. Formidably punny name for a Scottish-style ale, I have to say.

This beer pours a clear, dark reddish-brown amber hue, with two pudgy fingers of billowy, densely foamy, and somewhat bubbly beige head, which leaves a broad array of mangled tree branch lace around the glass as it genially sinks out of sight.

It smells of sharply crackery and biscuity bready pale malt, a bit of musty caramel/toffee sweetness, dry dark-ish fruit esters (bruised pears and overripe apples, I guess), and leafy, weedy hops. The taste is gritty, sort of meaty caramel malt, wet saltine crackers, a further muddled, 'aged' drupe fruitiness, rain-soaked campfire ash, more leafy, weedy hops, and a suggestion of the idea of some kind of booze warming.

The bubbles are more or less seen and not heard (or felt, really), the body a sturdy, bellicose medium weight, and fairly smooth, the malt-shop character manifesting as such, except for the alcohol, but well, ya can't have everything, then, eh? It finishes on the sweet side, the biscuity caramel malt, and various hangers-on keeping the party that never stops, from, well, stopping.

Kind of cross between a Scottish Ale, and a Wee Heavy, a general problem I seem to have a little too much experience dealing with of late. Anyways, this is a pleasurable enough attempt at a more subtle than one might appreciate old-world style, whichever one it is that they were going for. Malty, single malt-adjacent, and a tad fruity - all the good stuff a Scotsman might look for in such a tribute of a brew.

 

 

 

 

This beer lacks character and depth. It is still a scotch ale, so it is better than 50% of the beer out there automatically. I was expecting something a little better from Harvest Moon. I guess I got my hopes up a little too much.

The taste was definitely pleasant and malty. The flavor definitely didn't last long though.

It is a nice color and does compare in color to Cold Smoke or Heavy Horse. (Of course done in a side by side "experiment").

New offering from Harvest Moon Brewery. Good Scottish Ale pretty similar in taste to Cold Smoke out of Missoula. Available right now in 16 oz cans. I'm usually not a fan of Harvest Moon offerings but this one is a decent Scottish Ale worth the try. A little thin for my liking but a good drinking beer none the less