Whim Old Izaak Ale

Brewed by Broughton
Style: Old Ale
Biggar, The Borders, Scotland

Bottle. Pungent autumn cider, baked cinnamon crab apples, bitter leaves aroma. Red brown beer with bitter-style tight beige head. mmm... cinnamon brown sugar medium sweer tobacco apples de garde. roasty, nutty finish. repeat drinking anaytime. smooth, warming ratio is autumn/spring. warm chestnuts. chocolate mocha flavor later. buprs alternately taste like diner or cookie. Xtremely sessionable at 5 abv. nice long finish. A good friend.

Dark red brown ale witg a thick off white head. Sweet brown sugar aroma, like vanilla fudge and dry raisins. In mouth, sweet caramel with very buttery notes, oxidized taste, a bit astringent, nothing thrilling. BB April 2004....jeez, I have to check my BB dates more carefully!

Bottle. Sweet raisin malt aroma. Cloudy orange brown color with small head. Brown sugar and raisin flavor with moderate hops finish. Pretty weak for the style.

Bottled Old Izaak which I sampled, is actually contract brewed for Whim Ales by its sister brewery Broughton Ales LTD over the border in Scotland. Old Izaak is a traditional old ale, coming in at 5% abv. It is brewed with Marris Otter pale malts, crystal, black malts, and hopped with one variety, English grown Northdown. This was a wonderful beer to sip and savor before a nice meal, it is a great beer to enjoy in the cold winter months. Old Izaak pours to a beautiful, deep garnet to brown color with a dense tan head, and a soft to moderate carbonation. When held to the light, this beer is really a brilliant, deep ruby color that is a site to behold. The nose on this beer is very inviting with lots of good sweet malty aromas, pleasing slightly citric, and flowery hop aromas, and touches of plummy fruit. The palate is soft and full on the tongue with lots of good caramel, toffee, and fruity, estery flavors of plum and black currant, and an undertone of chocolate. Old Izaak finishes with more malt, toffee and fruit up front, then ends with some nice hop bitterness and fruity flavors that slightly linger on the tongue. This is an excellent old ale, very traditional, and very delicious. I am always very impressed with this beer, and believe it would work very well as an after dinner drink, night cap, or desert beer. This beer would be wonderful with a nice warm slice of mince meat pie with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream. If you see Old Izaak in your market, it is a beer well worth seeking out. I paid $7 for a pint bottle, but that of course, is a marked up bar price. You should be able to find this beer retailing in a good beer store for about half that cost($3-$4) a pint bottle. This is the type of beer you will warm right up to.

Deep garnet color with white head. I wasn’t all that impressed with this--so many beers get lost in translation when bottled and sent to the U.S. What I got here was a cross between a bock and Newcastle Brown Ale--malty but lacking the richness of caramel and fruit that you might get, the hops giving a dryness but without freshness or lift. The most important feature here was the metallic finish that hopefully wasn’t intended; it didn’t fade the way the edge can do after a whole bottle. Other than the astringency, you’ve got a relatively light body. "Strong ale" at 5% abv...I wouldn’t recommend this beer to US drinkers.

Looks nice, but this tastes like your regular English Ale, a little darker and a little better. Maybe.

Medium-bodied. Can’t decide if it wants to be warm and caramelly or bright and fruity. Hints and berries mix with toffee. Hops perfumey and herbal. A weird mix, but not unpleasant. Just wish it could decide where it wants to go.

When I poured the beer, it had a rich creamy head and the color was more of a brown-style tint than a red (in low light). It is a nice medium bodied ale that tastes great during the colder air of the seasons. I definitely enjoyed this.