Scotch Ales

A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of sips of Founder's Backwoods Bastard Scotch Ale at the Armsby Abbey. It was definitely beer envy. I was drinking a wheat wine, which was good, but not as spectacular as that Scotch Ale. Since then, I have been thinking about scotch ales quite a bit. I even bought a couple to try out. No Founders, though, as it's hard to find around here.

Belhaven Wee Heavy

Belhaven Brewery claims to be the oldest surviving brewery in Scotland, a claim which leads one to have high hopes for this Scotch ale.  Pouring it into my glass, I was intrigued by the beer's very beautiful deep garnet color and creamy, tan head, which quickly disappeared. The aroma coming off of it was very fruity and almost red-wine like. This wee heavy has a very strong malt flavor which is balanced by a light hop bitterness.  It's not very carbonated, but I don't miss that in strongly flavored beers.  I would definately buy this beer again.

Smuttynose Scotch Ale

I am a huge Smuttynose fan.  Their beer is great and the neat designs on their bottles always make me want to pick up a six-pack when I'm at the store.  This Scotch Ale is part of their big bottle series, where they sell limited run and seasonal brews in 22oz bottles.  

This beer is darker than the Belhaven one.  It has a dark, cloudy amber color.  I will attribute the cloudiness to chill haze.  (I'm secretly pleased that even commercial breweries have trouble with this.)  The head was light tan and quite foamy, and when I sipped it, there was thick lacing down the side of the glass.  The ale has a nice floral aroma that does not prepare you for the bold malt flavors that hit your tongue when you sip!  The flavor is sweet and malty, with a pleasant bitter finish as the beer heads down your throat.  This is a very alcoholic beer (over 11% abv) and you can definitely taste it.  I would also purchase this beer again.  Yum!

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I bottled my oatmeal stout on Sunday.  I think once the flavors have a chance to mellow out that it will be a very nice beer.  I attempted to bottle my cranberry hefeweizen yesterday, but the hydrometer reading was 1.021, which is too high for that kind of beer.  Instead I racked it to a secondary fermenter so it could sit for another three days.  The cranberry chunks clogged up the siphon and were a pain to deal with.  The next time I try to make a fruit beer, I will either use a flavor extract or keep the fruit in a stocking like a giant tea bag.  Because of the chunks, it was not a quiet siphon into the second bucket.  I had to repeat the homebrewers mantra several times (Relax.  Don't worry.  Have a homebrew.) to make myself feel less panicked about the whole process.   A sample sip of the brew shows a predominant bubblegum flavor to it that I really hope goes away after a few weeks in a bottle.