MacAndrews Stock Ale

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Scotch Ale
Tadcaster, England

Earthy caramel syrup and slight hop bitterness…Tickling sugar…

This promised better than it delivered. The reddish/amber coloring was good and the aroma was good and malty. There was little, if any, head and very little carbonation. The taste was more bitter than malty, leaving a sour palate. Perhaps I had a bad bottle, as there was an unusually heavy amount of residue at the bottom.

Dark brown, port-like look with quite a large, smooth, lasting head. Nose of grapes, caramel malt, slight yeastiness. Flavor’s a knockout: wine and milk chocolate, toffee, dates, all of my favorite things, perhaps just a little too sweet until the end, when the finish becomes quite long and hoppy. Excellent product from Sammy that I should’ve had long ago.

A wine-like, hoppy with molasses aroma and other spices. Rum colour with nice lace. Full mouthfeel, nice by itself, particularly during winter. More malty than sugary sweet. Satisfying. A surprising find, at Chester’s in Hamilton, thanks to Doug Shoemaker.

Cloudy brownish red color with a quickly dissapearing head. Aroma is pungent malt and metallic. Taste is full of malt and sugars, musty leather and a certain sour grape that I’m not into.

Candied fruit aroma. Garnet, huge toffee head. Treacle, plums, raisins, cherries, almonds. Complex, woody, bitter, dry. Wonderful texture. A real treat! Seems like a Barley Wine.

Beautiful garnet color, creamy beige head and sheets of lace. Nose is malt, caramel, brandy tones, maybe even plummish. Front is malt and slightly sweet, the top medium, the finish is dry, tart, nicely hopped, light carbonation, and the 6.5% abv is also evident. A beer not meant for the ’Weak of Palate’, robust and hearty. Another example of why ’STRONG ALES KICK-ASS’.

Well-aged sample: Translucent chocolate. Thin but beautifully persistent head of fine bubbles. Extremely earthy nose comprised of sherry, fruitcake, dates, and leathery yeast. Smooth, feathery soft carbonation. Immaculately conditioned. Firmly dry leathery yeast stance paves the way for ensuing fruitcake and sugared date richness. Relaxed tartness and oxidation lends sharpness to the already-firm minerally astringency amid sharp dried leather and softening background notes of smoky peat and vanilla. As with the massive dryness, phenolic hints engage to temper the beefy malt. Insistently barky malts resound as it approaches the extremely leathery, woodily dry finish with growing notes of dates and caramel lingering. Complex and appetizing. An aged wonder.