French Broad Wee-Heavy-est Belgian Scotch Ale

Brewed by French Broad Brewing Co.
Style: Scotch Ale
Asheville, North Carolina USA

Awesomely delicious beer. It looked great too, nice and dark but not black, and had a great drinkability to it, which is good because I thought it might be crazy malty. Fire = lit for this c-boy. Yeehaw.

Bottle, sent as an extras with a trade with Jabic. Burgundy color with fine vanilla head. Aroma is light raisin, Belgian yeast, plum and chocolate malt. Flavor is a straight follow up of the aroma. Some spiced toffee with more raisin and malt. Finish is dry and the body is a bit thin. Prominent Belgian yeast flavor lasts after each sip. Pretty good.

Bottle shared by pepsican. Poured a murky brown color with a light tan head. Smelled predominantly and unexpectedly of freshly sliced apple. Medium bodied and dryish up front with mild bitterness. Some delicate sweetness emerged toward the end. I tasted dried dark fruits (fig, raisin) and a touch of smoke. Not bad, but didn’t knock my Scottish socks off.

lots of good caramel flavor. has a nice bread like quality with biscuits. the overall flavor is very good.

The aroma is dead on for a belgian, with a funky yeast dominating. There is defiantly malt, fruit, spices, basement, wood, and grass. The appearance is mahogany/amber with a large head. The flavor is like the aroma and quite sweet but also astringent. The palate is OK are hard to pin down as I don’t know what style this really is. Overall an interesting but not great beer.

Sampled courtesy of Pepsican. This was a pretty cool beer. The nose had a good berry character with yeasty and vinous notes to compliment. The flavor is great and fruity like a good Riesling and has a good peaty character with some spicy clove notes. This beer is a darn thinker and a real style bender at that, if I could call it anything I’d say it’s like some sort of Belgian Weizenbock.

22oz Bottle. Aroma casts a nice glow of toffee, caramels and almond-laden burnt sugar. Nice, but soft. A slight dubbel-like belgian yeast twist adds complexity and intrigue. Pours a murky red-brown, with a tall finger of creamy, dense tan foam. Flavor comes out a little thinner than I would like and some hot alcohols and a sheen of phenolic belgian yeast before a bit of bitter malt clash. Hmmm. This is peculiar. Oooh. The juicyfruit from the yeast in the finish is a nice character. Stronger and more bitter than I would have expected. I want more caramel and depth. The belgian character is really overpowering the potential subtlety in the malt. Maybe not the best pairing of beer dimensions, but still a unique and enjoyable approach. Thanks Joe!

22 oz bottle. Pours a dark ruby brown with a frothy off-white one finger head that had decent retention. The nose is very sweet with lots of fruitiness, caramel and toffee maltiness, some belgian yeast, and a touch of alcohol. The flavor is a bit overly sweet with lots of belgian yeast character that lends a fruity character that’s not normally seen in a Scotch Ale. Very heavy maltiness, lots of residual sugars, and a bit of an alcohol kick. Mouthfeel was pretty creamy with fairly restrained carbonation, lingering sweet finish. Overall, a decent enough attempt at putting a twist on a Scotch Ale, but not something I’d seek out again.