Grand Lake Plaid Bastard

Brewed by Grand Lake Brewing Co
Style: Scotch Ale
Grand Lake, Colorado USA

Bottle Shared at Ryan & Max’s Tasting @ Pauls. Pours a brune body with an off white head. Burnt malt, peat, ashen char notes and some wet woody and whiskey esk tones. A decent scotch ale.

Bottle at Paul’s tasting. Pours a clear cola brown with a thin white head. Sweet, little chocolate, plum, pepper. Boozy, medium bodied, little bit of maple. More booze, roast, smoke, chalky roast bitterness.

12oz bottle, no date. Clear deep brown with a half finger tan head, fading to a ring before long. Smoked meat, leather, and tobacco up front in the aroma with some light toasted malts and chocholate behind. I also pick up on a tinge of something tangy, but could be from the leather and tobacco. The flavor adds a lightly roasty component, but otherwise mostly follows the aroma. The tobacco and leather are milder, as well as the smoke, but the smoke is only slightly lessened. Bitterness peaked around a 2. Light carbonation with a medium smooth body. Pretty good Scotch ale. Oh, and at 8 percent, I had no idea it was that strong until I lookeed at the stats.

22oz bottle-Poured a dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma of malt, smoke, and sweetness. Taste of the same with some fruits coming through as well. This full bodied brew was not bad.

Bottle in trade. Thanks! Pours dark brown to black with no head. Smell is roasty and malty. Taste is somewhat dry and smoky but with sweetness in there too. I’d say this is a well above average Scotch ale, but I still don’t care much for it.

Pours a decent, slightly cloudy brown, with a frothy head. Aroma is dominated by smokey malts. Flavor is pretty similar, although I found the smoke to be a bit much for my tongue. I didn’t pick up any (or much) of the black cherry or raisin in their commercial description. Palate was medium bodied. Overall it was a nice beer to try, but I probably won’t be going back to the well.

I took a trip up to Evergeen to buy some vintage beers and found this. I’d read previous reviews and $10.49 a sixer didn’t seem too bad for a strong scotch ale. I have also been trying to taste more examples of this style since I really like Old Chub and Alesmith Wee Heavy. This beer has an instant malty, subtle smoke smell that is nice. The color is super-black with an off-white ring of bubbles running around the circumference of the glass. Whoah, the taste starts out as smoky malts and turns into band-aids and then meat. That may sound bad but if you like smoky, peaty beers this is definitely one of them and it gets better as it warms. This is a good beer to split into two snifters to increase drinkability, 12oz is too much. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 04-12-2008 01:43:25

This beer was a disappointment. With "Bastard" as part of the name, I had my hopes up. However, this beer was flat. No head to speak of; no carbonation. Sort of like drinking a beer that you had taken the cap off of yesterday and put it back in the fridge. Won’t be buying this again.