Mc Chouffe

Brewed by Brasserie d’Achouffe (Moortgat)
Style: Scotch Ale
Achouffe, Belgium

Pours a nice, dark amber, with thick, light tan head. Nose is nice malty, with strong yeast notes. Flavor is very mild, for the style. Malts and fruit dominate. Mouthfeel is a bit thin. Overall, the beer is less than I had hoped. Good, but its Belgian characteristics seem to dominate the characteristics of the style, and it doesn’t really compete with the best Scots Ales.

750 mL into a tulip (what is a thistle). Pours a muddy brown with a one-two finger tan head with okay retention and spotty lacing. Lots of yeast particulate in the glass. Nose is Belgian candi sugar, mineral water, caramel malt. Taste is malty, a tad metallic, with a watery body and faint cinnamon spice with Belgian yeasty dryness coming in the finish. Not that great. Sort of watery and bland. Meh.

Oh, you curious noble little gnome you. You planted and grew a right good little beer here. Syrupy but delicious. Intentionally drank this in an illegal manner. Mmm, well built and tasty alcohol.

THOUGHTS: A nice Scotch ale with a decidedly Belgian twist. I’ve known the Belgian made a lot of Scottish ales and have ever since been dying to try one. This was my first. I was surprised at the Belgian yeast being such a huge player her. I figured their love of Scottish beer would drive them to try to re-create the style closely, but this may have the base of a Scotch ale, but it definitely very Belgian. It hid the alcohol very well. This bottle may have been slightly skunked. I need to buy it somewhere other than the Shop Rite, with its glaring fluorescent lights. Doubt it was skunked, but did seem slightly off. Not a true Scotch ale, but a really nice beer. Very different. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brownish orange with reddish amber highlights and beautiful carbonation that kept the head from ever fully diminishing. It had an average to large, off-white head that kept a decent sheet. The aroma was a light to moderate molasses and caramel malt and possibly grain or straw that might have actually been part of the complex yeast strain that increased as it warmed. There was also moderate to heavy dough yeast that was like under baked biscuits or baking bread and also some slight funk and a little spice when it was warmer. There was also a little apple and cherry, but yeast was the dominant aroma of this beer. The initial flavor was sweet and ever so slightly acidic; while the finish was lightly sweet, acidic and sour with an average to long duration. There was caramel, apple, cherry, toffee, doughy yeast, a sort of maple syrup, candy, spices and slight tea. I couldn’t tell if it was just the yeast or if there was also some slight grain notes. The medium body was a little syrupy for a split second and they became rather dry with lively carbonation and a light to moderate astringent, very lightly alcoholic and very dry finish.

750 ml. Roasted nutty, fig aroma. Dried apples, touch of maple syrup (or carmel) and brown sugar flavors. Perfect touch of acidity. I really loved this beer, it could be because of the current Scottish ale kick I'm on but I think it also had something to do with the Belgian artisanal interpretation of the style.

On Tap-Judges Bench-Ellicott City Md.-Mahogany color w/a moderate off white head. Sweet malty aroma. Sweet roasted malt flavor hit you right away, also had some dark fruit to it along w/some raisins & figs, but the malt was most prevalent. A little sweeter than most scotch ales, really seemed like a Belgian & a Scotch Ale combined. Different, but pretty good.

Foam tried to escape out the top of the bottle upon opening, but I was too quick. Pours with a massive head which settles to a nice head of foam. Nice clear dark brown with lots of red highlights. This bottle was nearly two years old and the characteristic Achouffe yeast phenolics have gone a lot leaving an mild appley, herbal aroma with some Indian food smell. Light bodied and lightly malty with some toast and a spicy (pepper) flavour. It’s fairly nice with no faults but never really grabbed me. I’ve got another bottle aging as per Oakes’ recommendation but I don’t hold out much hope for greatness.
Aged bottle - BB 05, drank Jul 05: Gushed pretty seriously. Great looking beer too. Dunno that it had changed all that much. There was a very nice fruity element in there, and the typical McChouffe herbal stuff. It wasn’t any worse for the aging, but I don’t think it really gained anything.

Bottle Stirchley Wines Birmingham. This used to be a real favourite of mine back in my formative years of belgian beer guzzling so was interested to know if this had stood the test of time. Cloudy dark brown colour with a decent lingering rocky muddy coloured head. Sweetish malty and quite boozy flavour with spice and dark fruit notes. A bit more rough around the edges than I remembered. OK but vaguely disappointing.