McEwans Scotch Ale

Brewed by John Smiths (S&N, Heineken)
Style: Scotch Ale
Tadcaster, England

Reddish-brown color, heavy but quickly dissapearing head. Rich smell, nutty with a real alcohol bite. The first taste confirms - alcohol is the defining characteristic. Chocolate, sweet, malty taste, rough palate. Not a session beer!

Pours a clean dark ruby brown, with a creamy tall head of nut. Butternut and light salt aroma. General malt. Weak. Taste is a sullen, alcohol strewn and fibrous rich plain caramel malt, with some toffee and hazlenut. An articficial sharpness, that’s somewhat unpleasent. Mostly sweet clean malt, with a hint of cream, touch of pair and a finish of dry nut. Palate is a little sticky, yet ascerbic, but has some wicking nutty smack.

Pours with a thin diminishing white head on a reddish-born body. Strong malty aroma with alcohol predominant. Sweet maltry flavor with lots of alcohol on a medium body.

Thin fully diminishing tan head on a very dark amber body. Sweet malt and caramel aroma. Sweet dark malty flavor with noticable caramel and toffee and just a hint of smoke.

Thin off-white diminishing head. A pleasent musky aroma for a Scotch Ale. A very nice brown color in the body. Tastes are of chocolate and molasses, with a very smooth ending.

From Bottle

Poured dark, red highlights. Little white head that quickly dissipated, only to stay present around the edges which laced the glass nicely. Aroma was sweet, sugary, and malty. flavor was of sweet fruits, and some spicey hints in the middle, with some bitterness around my tongue in the end. As it warmed the beer tasted like pure scotch. I could definately taste the alcohol when warm. Carbonation was good, mouthfeel was medium.

Lightly carbonated, pours dark dark brown. I think the aroma may have been better than the flavor, very malty.Only downfall is I’ve had beers with higher abv that didn’t have as much of the alcohol taste as this one. Enjoyable all around, but I probably won’t be buying it on a regular basis.

bottle - Pours very dark brown, medium head that mostly faded after about five minutes. Malty, alcohol aroma, flavor dominated by the malts. Palate is full bodied with light carbonation. The sweet and lightly bitter finish with significant alcohol notes hangs around for quite awhile. Pleasantly warming, though if I could change one thing I’d mask the alcohol just a little bit more.