McNeills Tartan Export Ale

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

Brown colour. Excellent aroma - toffee, graham cracker, molasses, Christmas fruitcake, portobello, earth. The palate on the other hand is bland over bland - vague caramel and a little bit of orange. What happened?

Bottle shared courtesy of egajdzis (thanks!). Poured a darker and cloudy brown color with an averaged sized off white head. Earthy aromas and tastes with some caramel and toffee. A sour funkiness came out in the taste.

On tap at Mcneills. Copper hue, lasting beige ring. Mellow yet interesting candy bouquet, caramelic and cookiesh. Well balanced in mouth, not too sweet and rather light, but has pleasant touch of smoke and earth together with raw barley and bready undertones. The mouthfeel could be a bit fuller perhaps, this is a bit watery and strongly carbonated..

Crystal clear, dark, caramel-colored ale with a large, tan, rocky head. Nice lacework. Terrific nose. Notes of dates, hazelnuts, molasses, earth, toffee, sweet bread and alcohol. The flavor doesn’t stand as tall as the aroma. A bit of caramel, hazelnut, smoke and cocoa. Fairly nondescript, but not at all offensive. Medium-bodied with a lightly creamy mouthfeel and mild carbonation. Moderately dry finish.

Sweet, half-fermented black grape juice aroma with faint date syrup...Ugly, cancerous, sparse bubbles form its diseased crown...Muddy ashes run amock in the semi-thick, placid grape juice...A dry ending cannot deter the comparison with their quasi-lifeless mock-dubbel...Not a bad beer but, alas, forgettable...

Fresh Growler: Pours brown with a tanish head that is lingering. When poured, the carbonation looked very lively and appealing. Smells of yogurt, sugar. Tastes nutty and chocolatey with some nice roasted malty qualities. Tastes more like a stout than a Scottish Ale. I have a few bombers of this one I’ll come back to to rerate.

Pours turbid deep brown, with aroma of caramel malt, some figgy fruit, slight banana and spicy floral notes. The aroma and flavor is a lot like Stone 666. It has more fruit than most scottish ales, with the heavy malt component.

Dark clear brown ale with a big bubbled white head. Faint malt aroma. Nice crisp malt with light diacetyl, thin and overall, boring. On tap Feb. 10, 2006.