Brau Brothers Scotch Ale

Brewed by Brau Brothers Brewing Company
Style: Scotch Ale
Lucan, Minnesota USA

[Bottle, thanks Guerde] Pours amber with a very small off-white head. Aroma is banana, apple, and a little smoke. It’s a little strange. Taste is a little sweet up front, followed by something a little hard to identify. The finish is smokey and decent. Mouthfeel is fairly thin. It definitely has its flaws, but it isn’t too bad.

Pours, quite curiously, to a hazy shade of amber-orange. Confusing. Aroma of smoked brown sugar ham with barbecue sauce and alcohol. Kind of dirty. Taste can only be described as very empty, a gaping canyon with decorative walls. Peat and alcohol are most obvious. Wet, musty, and sweet. Hints of burnt, dead fruits. There’s an exact shade of earthy foulness that I can’t quite place, but it has a definite maple tint. Finishes hot and sugary. Alcohol is blatant on the palate. Heavy and pungent. Like a burnt hot dog soaked in booze. Wretched, no thank you.

Small off-white head atop a darker copper color. Hints of smoke on the nose. Flavor was rather nice, a touch of peat with a good balance of smoke. Body was light and finish war clean. By far the best from Brau Brothers I’ve tried.

Bottle thanks to Skyview! Poured a clear coppery-red with a short-lived cap of off-white head. The aroma was unfortunately weak, even at room temperature.. deeply-toasted, smoke-accented caramel paired with dried fruits and chocolate.. very nice, but too restrained. Flavor found the toasty caramel and peaty smoke again with a very mild herbal bitterness... finished transitioned from peat smokiness to liquid smoke, which wasn’t the best way to end it. Just shy of medium-bodied on the palate with decent balance.. some sharper fusel notes hit with the liquid smoke at the finish to drop a point. Decent.

Pours a brown amber body with a thin white head. The aroma is peaty with grainy chocolate. The flavor is tart peated malt with chocolate and sour funk. The palate is tart and acidic and doesn’t fit well.

Murky crimson shade, under thin creamy head. Should look darker, though... Sweet, malty nose, rich and fruity...cherries and berries and red licorice whips...strawberry jam... Tast: it’s all malt, in here, with just enough hop to keep the sweetness down a notch or two. Rosey and bright, but a bit thin. I keep wanting more to chew on...fairly medium bodied, sweet finish, lingers a bit. Each time the lip meets the cup, though, the result is satisfaction. I look for a bit more in a scotch ale, but this is good, no doubt about it. Tasty. I’d drink one again.

Slightly hazy brown body with a small off-white head. Sweet malty and buttery aroma. Spicy, light smoke flavor with some butter and caramel.

12 ounce bottle from Cellars Wine and Spirits on Larpenteur, Roseville MN (June 2007, served at cellar temperature in a Maudite glass. Uh oh. Everybody else mentions the small head....my bottle fills the glass with gouts of off-white foam, though it dies quickly; let’s hope this is just my having slightly shaken the bottle, and not infection like the Pilz I just had....the head subsides quickly though and a hazy/dirty brass-colored body takes shape....the nose is very sweet, lots of caramel and perhaps some butterscotch, cherry cough syrup, light peat, and grape juice....flavor is more attractive, again quite sweet but very rich and silky on the tongue, with smoky earth-tones throughout, more than a hint of the iodine/sea saltiness of the isles, and just enough drying woody character at the finish to keep the sweetness from overpowering....low carbonation, just a touch syrupy; a bit of paperiness midway through the sample mars things a touch. I guess I’m the low man for this brewery so far, but this one is the best I’ve had so far, decent enough to try once certainly.