Saranac Scotch Ale

Clear copper coloured body with an amber tint and a thinnish tan head. Aroma of funky metal, blood, nuts, yeast, mushrooms and roasted malt. Medium-bodied; Strong assertive maltiness and nuttiness following shortly. Metallic finish leads to an over-the-top funkiness. Aftertaste shows metal, malt, yeast and a ton of nuts and perhaps a bit of sugar. Overall, another horribly done beer that results in more off flavours than ’on flavours’. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Oliver’s Beverage on 12-July-2008, sampled at home in Washington on 04-September-2008.

Bottle: Pours a rusty copper bronze with an off white film of head. The aroma has some sweet malts- dark caramel, toasted bread, a nutty hint and metallic notes. Fairly light feel. The flavor has some toasted caramel sweetness and doughy suggestions. Ther’s also some grassy/vegetal character as well. The finish has some mildly bitter grassy notes with residual toasted malt hints. I didn’t detect any peat/smoke/earthy qualities which are essential to the profile of Scotch Ales. Like always with Saranac, very boring, but not horrible.

Poured amber. Cream head. Kind of malty aroma. Sweet, but not malty sweet in the mouth, a little toffee and caramel. Dry finish, which is good since the flavor is not ideal. Confusing what they were trying for, not very good. Probably shouldn’t even be considered a scotch ale.

Pours a copper color with a small offwhite head. Flavor is slightly sweet malt with just a hint of smokiness in the finish. Not bad but not great either.

Bottle - Poured a clear copper-brown in color with a medium light tan head. Aroma was malty and slightly sweet with a hint of smoky peated malts in the background. Flavor is slightly sweet also with hints of fruit and a mild smokiness. Not bad, but only an average Scotch ale.