Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #4

Formerly brewed at Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Style: Scotch Ale
Houston, Texas USA

Bottle: Pours a dark brown color with tan head. Nose of smoky tobacco and silky caramel ribbons. Light alcohol and fig notes along some cherry, more smoke, and an underlying oaky bite. Chewy and rich with some great contrasts of fruity hops in the tail. Yum!

Bottle split with Cavie. Chocolate, malts, and dark fruit aromas. Flavor is a little alcohol, malts, spice, pepper, corriander. Aftertaste of malts and yum.

HUGE thanks to Lumpy for this one! Dark brown pour that you can’t see through. Aroma is very deep. Lots of heavy smoke with rich malts. Some caramel scents. Warm inviting aroma. Taste of alcohol and dark malts. Heavy raisin taste with some smoke. Also some aged fruit that finishes dry and bitter. Still some complex flavors in this.

Bottle sample shared by shigadeyo. Poured a clear reddish brown color with an average frothy brown head that mostly diminished with good lacing. Medium wood, toasted malt and dark fruit aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium to heavy fruit bittersweet flavor with a medium to heavy fruit bittersweet finish of moderate to long duration. A solid complex brew.

Small yellowish head over blackish beer with a foxy-burgundy sheen. Rich cakey nose, with fresh pipetobacco, felt, ivy. Sweet, with a mild roasted bitterness, and again, tobacco flavour. I would agree to the peat, and maybe a hint of a wee dram, but as to coffee? Maybe some dark grapes, too. Thick, voluptuous MF, velvety and yet tongue-tingling. Very nice beer, if a tad rich for a ’simple’ Scotch ale. This is a 90/-, sirrah! Many, many thanks to Fly!

I gotta shout out Rollin Hard over at RB for sending this my way. I don’t think I have ever had a wee heavy so this should be interesting. Color is one of the darkest brown with red at the edge and a foamy tan head. The smell is malty, strong, good and lets you know the beer will probably be very tasty. Wow, the taste is weird! Robust, big flavors of malty goodness, hard to describe but kind of smoky and a little syrupy. Thick mouthfeel which makes me think it has some alcohol behind it but I sure can’t taste it. I’m not sure I like this style but this is still a good beer. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 09-14-2007 16:16:47

12oz via trade with TheBeerSommilier a ways back. During my cellar/overflow clean up I thought it was about time to pop this little retired Texan Scotch Ale. Pours rich brownish black with a tan ring. Nose is sweet and rich with hints of peat. Taste is tasty matly with a bitter smokey roasty flavor. Pretty tasty scotch ale!

12oz bottle courtesy of KAggie97, poured into a snifter. Pours a clear ruby color out of the bottle and settles in very dark in the glass, a deep mahogany with light coming through the edges. The head is a one-inch creamy tan cap that recedes slowly and leaves a little lacing. The aroma is fairly subdued to start with roasted malts and caramel sweetness coming through first. I’m also getting a pretty noticeable smoke presence which complements the sweetness well in the nose. The taste is a more robust version of the aroma. There seems to be a bit more sweetness with the caramel malts showing through a little more than the smoke initially. The is a sweet sugary cola-like taste that seems to dominate in the middle, maybe with some raisins and other dark fruits. The smoke comes back in the finish and lends to a slightly dry aftertaste on the palate. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with good carbonation and very smooth. This is another solid, if not spectacular, brew from Saint Arnold. It’s one of the more drinkable Scotch ales I’ve had in recent memory and while it’s probably not in the top tier of the style, I’d recommend it highly.