Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Special Reserve

Brewed by Harviestoun
Style: Old Ale
Alva, Central, Scotland

Pours as expected, quite black. Light brown head on this one. The aroma is chocolate, smoke, and malt. The taste is a rich mix of coffee, dark chocolate, wood, and malt.

12 oz bottle. Pours a cola black color with a medium brown head. Aroma is of toasted oats,black licorice,sweet soy sauce and slight whiskey. Flavor has toasted oatmeal taste with a backdrop of dark chocolate malt and a whiskey aftertaste. Very nicely done.

Chestnuts, roasting on an open fire, infuse this beverage teetering on the verge of mediocrity. The aroma is sweet soy with a touch of crushed dandelion flower. The flavor is slick and lactic, but rather hollow and lacking. The whiskey and oak have seeped in, but seem to have displaced the more flavorful components of the un-"reserved" parent. The palate is slightly medicinal then hits with a splash of chestnut smokiness. Overall, easy to drink, but just doesn’t muster the strength and vitality one would expect from an old ale. I purchased a second bottle and will revisit in a year or two. Until then, it will sleep with the dreams of Scottish kings and the brave battalions of yore.

Bottle. Pour was black with a thick tan head. Aroma of dark fruits, roasted malts, and chocolate. Sweet oak aged whiskey flavor mix well with chocolate and coffee flavors. Suprisingly smooth and very good. Glad I have one more of these to save for a little bit.

In the bottle. Vintage 2002. Pours black with a thin brown head. Has a whiskey and pepper aroma. Flavor at first is quite tart. Almost sour. It has a dominant whiskey taste that covers everything else up. The sourness is more pronounced than the chocolate. It is a bit like drinking a whiskey and Coke without the high fizz. The in-your-face alcohol burn is significant. A sweet/sour bolus emerges with each gulp as it warms.

Black pour with a creamy tan head. Some lacing. Aroma is huge chocolate and some hints of vanila. Flavor is rich yet clean. Big chocolate flavor is dark and slightly bitter. Super smooth body. Excellent. This is how to do whiskey barrel aging.

No head. Pours jet black. Porter-like body. Aroma of chocolate, roasted malts, some vanilla, with earthy tones. Tastes is complex-chocolate, coffee, malts, some alcohol/whiskey. A fine beer.

Pours viscous black, no head. Whiskey, cheese, oak notes. Flat and acidic. Wouldn’t touch this stuff again; could use some carbonation more than anything.