Traquair House Ale

Brewed by Traquair
Style: English Strong Ale
Innerleithen, Borders, Scotland

I would pigeonhole this as an "old ale." Fruity sweet aroma, mild in the flavor, reddish-brown color. Good head at first; doesn’t retain. A touch of sour.

At $4 and up for a bottle (I dropped 6 on this for crying out loud), this falls into the category of a Ratings Whore beer. Go now, go sell your ratings services for 20 minutes to this liquid, it’s not illegal to do so. Yet.

A nice ale. Aroma is sweet with mild hops. Appearance is nice and dark brown. Appears like guinness with a creamy bubbly look that disappaits. Flavor is rich with mild hops. A fair beer but very expensive.

Pours very dark cloudy brown with nearly no head. Aroma is very similar to a heavy red wine, very fruity and deep but also very malty. Palate is quite interesting, very smooth, low carbonation, but has just enough to avoid the sensation of flatness. The flavors are not nearly as fruity as the nose might indicate and are surprisingly light. The most dominant is a bitter roastiness that arises after about 5 seconds and lingers through the long finish. Slightly burnt tasting. Quite smoky, like a Scotch Ale or Rauchbeer. Interesting, would go well with some nice red meat. Too expensive though.

Dark caramel-brown color. Tan head composed of soapy bubbles that dissipate rapidly. Sweet, malty aroma with a serious hoppy presence, some slight saltiness and a hint of soy sauce. Rich, smoky malt flavors, with a significant hops presence. Woody, smoky, salty, very complex. Some mysterious eucalyptus quality was also present. A great, but somewhat expensive beer (I paid 1500 yen for this one). Definitely worth the experience. Very unique, deep, and complex.

(33 cl bottle from Systembolaget) Clear darm reddish brown color, tan head. Sweet sirup and raissin scent, also light vinous. Caramelly malty and sweet taste with lots of warming alcohol. Big and full body. High co2 mouthfeel. Medium bitterness. Aftertaste is chocolate and roasted malt mixed with coffee beans.

I was very pleased. Got the bottle at a local burger place that had a surprisingly large seletion of brews. The chocolate flavors with a nice bitterness went very well with food. Mosly malt and nor detectable hops.

Bottle. Dark brown with a thin and lightly lacy tan head that quickly becomes a white ring of foam. Light aroma, but some molasses comes around, along with a bit of spice. Medium body and fine carbonation.The taste is a lot bigger with more spice, molasses, nuts and some plum/prune. Oaky vanilla and a lingering hoppy bitterness in the finish.

bottle. dark brown with no head to speak of. aroma of cardamom, coriander and ginger. tasted a bit like jacobite lite to me, was a two year old bottle and was perhaps a bit more restrained than i would have liked. still, the flavours there were nice - brown sugar, toffee, port