Church Brew 140 Shilling Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

Brewed by Church Brew Works
Style: Scotch Ale
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

Draught pint at the Moan and Dove in Amherst, MA in the company of that hop-lovin’ sour-hatin’ ClarkVV, February 19 2006, part of their "bootleg" series. Score! A new Scotch ale I’ve not heard tell of, with only a few ratings, from a brewpub I’ll never visit. Cool....can it live up to the pressure? Served too cold in a pint glass, but drunk slowly so as to observe the following: lasting thick off-white creamy head, lots of lacing atop the deep molasses-tarry body....aroma is lightly yeasty, peaty and earthy but really pretty weak; cold there was nothing and even after 15 minutes it has little expressiveness....very, very sweet with loads of brown sugar and maple and just a touch of bitter greens, alcohol fairly prominent all the way through to the bitter, mineralic finish....slippery-syrupy body, somewhat worty and underfermented....don’t think I finished it without a struggle. Well, it looked good.

Fantastic ale for winter, with fruit hints buried nicely by a rich caramel.

Very smooth dark and full of flavor. No aftertaste to speak of. Served in a smaller glass, but still worth the order.

1/2 gallon growler. Murky dark apple cider appearance. Zippo head. Light carbonation. Toasty, caramel, Goldings aroma. Thick bodied, lightly crisp and popcorn toasty. Have they changed yeasts? Or started using popcorn Pale malts? This flavor is in all their brews lately. Anyway, nice body and heavily malted with a subtle burnt aspect, not peat just roasted caramel. Fruity sweet, caramelized popcorn aftertaste and a light alcohol spiciness. Nice sipping brew but the toasty aspect is killing me, as much as I love these guys. What gives?

A dark brown scotch ale. dark brown beer with reddish highlights. big heavily malted tastewith a slight smoky taste and a pleasant hop finish. note this is only served in 10 oz. glasses not regular pints.