McNeills Scotch Ale

Brewed by McNeills Brewery
Style: Scotch Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Dark chocolate tobacco failing to shrug off the muscular earthy hops, which soon dominate the flavor spectrum...Fruity yeast interacts with the now green hops but gets discouraged at the lack of help from the malt and thus nearly abandons ship...More malts would be needed to balance off these salient hops and make this an offering to McNeill’s usual standards of quality..3.5/5.

Of course, some bottles of this aren’t in top shape, and diacetyl is prominent, pushing back the hops (good!) yet veiling the fruity malts too much to my tastes. 3/5

Original Rating (22-Sep-04, 8-3-6-3-10=3.0): Hops, sweet malt, touches of smoke, chalky, roasty aroma. Some fruit emerges in the aroma as it warms. Clear reddish-brown with thin cover of off-white head. Assertively roasty bitterness. Flavour is hop dominated. Chalky flavour takes away from enjoyment. Body a bit on the thin side. Where’s the malt??? Bottle sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, MartinT and Rastacouere.
Re-Rate (24-Apr-05, 6-4-4-2-9=2.5): Chocolate covered toffees with a fair fruitiness and strong butterscotch character that seems to work for this one. Opaque brown with thin but lasting cover of tan head that leaves some very fine traces down the sides of the glass. Sweet malts are overcome by mineral, metallic and green pea flavours. Medium body is rather slick with very low carbonation. Bottle sampled with MartinT, muzzlehatch, Olivier_MTL, Rastacouere and Yowie.

Brown color with reddish hues. Strong aroma of hops with some caramel. Flavor of hops, caramel, alcohol and roastiness. Bitter finish. Medium body, soft carbonation, liquorous texture. True to the McNeill’s style, there’s a lot of hops, but it makes it out of style for a scotch ale, it should be a lot more malty than hoppy.

Low off-white head covers a rubyish brown hue. Nice aroma with lots of malt providing toffee and butterscotch flavor. Spicy kick. Coffee notes. Earthy and orangey hops feel weird on the tongue. Salty finish is highly roasty. It’s not really bitter, just out of place, feeling almost chalky. Weird spicy feel reminiscent of basil (in a scotch ale?). Medium bodied, average carbonation. Weird scotch ale... I don’t dig it.

Rerate. A very good example of a Scotch Ale. Thin head with tastes of sweet molasses, brown sugar and light peat.

Jan 04: 22 oz bottle. Very dark reddish brown, heavily sedimented, murky. Small, creamy, lasting head. Very sweet, toffee/caramel nose, bit orangey. Super-soft, pillowy, almost milk-shake mouthfeel; I loved it, others may find it cloying. Very sweet, smoky orange-caramel front, oaky notes in the center, finish somewhat excessively bitter for style. Very good overall, certainly no disappointment from this master brewer, if far from his best. 8/3/8/4 16 3.9

November 2005: 22 oz bottle shared with ClarkVV. Seems too sweet and rather cardboardy and dry at the finish, lots of toffee and pecans...still good, but just not quite up to what it was a couple of years ago.

Bottle: Yeasty malty nose, sour dough/carmel.A little smoke, though not as much as I expect from scotch ale. Hazy orange brown color, though fair amount of sediment stayed on bottom of bottle. Little to no head. Sweet initially, bitter finish. Medium to full body. Creamy. Soft on carbonation. Lingering smokey bitterness Only one I found at either discount liquors on rt9 or the co-op downtown. Very enjoyable, but a bit out of style. A little ABV creeps in as it warms up. I'm getting that warmth. Doesn't tell strength. Sweeter than any scotch ale I've had before, but Ray doesn't care what the nay sayers think.