Harviestoun Ola Dubh 18 Year Special Reserve

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Chocolate, treacle, raisins, apples, blackcurrant, chocolate. I has it all! Pours almost black with a virtually non-existent head. Very rich and full-bodied, but still surprisingly drinkable. THe perfect dark beer in my opinion. Love it!

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

Pours opaque sable with a thick tan head. Roast malt aroma has notes of chocolate, whisky, wood and coffee - almost more a stout than an old ale. Mouth-filling flavor delights with roast malt, coffee, smoky, earthy, semi-sweet chocolate and subtle caramel tones plus a hint of whisky-infused wood. Firm, viscous body has little fizz, but still goes down well. Worth $10 for 330 ml? Ale yeah!

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Dark, black almost w/ light brown lasting lacing foam. Dark aroma, soft coffee, some toffee, little bitter. Smooth taste, light coffee, light bitter, just a smooth taste, not too outstanding. Lasting smooth aftertaste, a real smooth beer. (Amsterdam 201409)

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Wish List Beer. Shared bottle with sam. Motor oil. Tasty tasty motor oil. Thick tar black pour with little head nor lacing. Sweet burnt molasses in the initial nose and taste, huge malt presence, extremely earthy, woodsy, smoky, roasted nuts, dark chocolates, then the Whisky. Love love love this beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Finally found the missing one of these brews (years) in the States, at Total Wine in Summerlin, Vegas. Bottle No. 10023 on FEB 2012. Pours a dark brown colour with a frothy-bubbly mocha head, good retention and thick creamy lacing. Big nutty aromas with lots of dark fruits, but I do not feels the smokiness in this one. Well, at least not much. More molasses and hints of fruitcake. A little warming in the mouthfeel with a nice touch of dryness from the hops. Still, too wet overall. Taste is little mild compared to the nose, but still lots going on, with the blend of dark fruits, nuts and hoppy finish. Glad I could try this, but that's good for this one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Dirty used oil with a thin tan cap floating on top. Thick smooth smokey chocolate, mild peat, and a faint hint of a freshly tared roof. Wish the aroma was a little stronger. Mmmmmmmmm... that's easy drinking stuff. Earth, peat, chocolate, tons of smoke, and a bitter, bitter finish. Is that apple?? probably not. This drinks to fast. Some vanilla, dry, toast. That's all I have to say about that.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

I'm pretty sure I had a 12 at Pfoxyjohn's, however, I recall little of that night so I thought I best try again. The 18 is what I found, not bad I'd say. Not quite so viscous as advertised but jet black with light froth. Smells and tastes like the best Imps, also a bit of smoke, nice. Really well rounded and just great to continually sip on, close to Abyss in my mind.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Feb 2009 Bottled, drank in April 1012. Black beer, light tan head, really a dirty white I think at times. I taste nuts, salt, whiskey (light coloured light bodided whiskey like Lowland), nothing like peat, something like white wine. The body is medium, no trace of alcohol, in fact this particular bottle seems a bit watery, not like the others in the series that I have had. Seems to lean to the sweeter side while drinking, and the aftertaste has a nice biscuit like dryness to it. Mild carbonation that has disappeared pretty quickly. Fantastic but disappointing that said wateryness showed up in this bottle, which doesn't appear to be the norm.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

skips over the 30 in the hierarchy...rivals the 40 as the smoothest. lost of whiskey in this one, but not hot at all. some smoke, sweet dark fruit and roasted malts. Good enough i want to try the whiskey...

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

I'm not sure what defines these as 'old' ales, they all seem pretty porterish/Scottish ale to me. They all poured black, lots of roasted malt and vanilla in the aroma. Flavour is well balanced. Nice and malty, and the whiskey is in the finish. I can find no discernable differences between the 12, 16, and 18 year versions