Inveralmond Lia Fail

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

Bottle: Poured a dirty light amber color ale with a rather large foamy head with good retention and some good lacing. Aroma of dry English hops with lingering peats malt notes (or maybe I was dreaming but seems there was definite smoke notes). Body is quite full with good carbonation and light alcohol level makes this even more enjoyable. Easily drinkable though quite complex – finish was maybe a tad too dry.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Sampled on 2/22/09. This ESB Bitter pours a deep amber color from a 500ml bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is caramel and cookie malts, fruity and sweet. A medium bodied ale. The malts are caramel and bready, cookie and sweet. The hops are earthy and floral. Good balance. Soft, creamy carbonation. The bitterness is subtle, but carries throughout the beer. This would be a great session ale. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is creamy and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

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

It pours fairly dark with not too much head. It is a nice taste. A little bit of spice to it and a slightly bitter aftertaste. This beer is nothing too crazy but definitely worth a try.

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

500 ml bottle, bought at Peckham’s, Glasgow. Deep amber to copper coloured beer, decent off-white head. Lovely fruity aroma, also notes of malts and caramel, hints of spices. The flavour is fairly fruity and moderately malty, with distinct hops throughout, also notes of toffee. Well balanced. A very nice bitter!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Cask@GBBF2007. Copper colour, mediumsized beige head. Aroma is caramel, hops and soem earthyness. Flavour is wood, slight fruits and earth. Very mouthdrying brew.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Dark amber with a nut-coloured head. Roasty aroma with dark malt. Taste of a lot of dark malt with hints of nuts, caramel, toffee and cacao. Weak hints of hops. Very long and smooth finish.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Dark copper with a weak head. The aroma is very malty with a hint of peat. It’s also heavily sweet with caramel and brown sugar. The flavor isn’t overly sweet (the aroma would have fit a cloyingly sweet beer, so it wouldn’t have been unexpected), but does have a cake-like malt quality that complements the aroma nicely. There’s virtually no bitterness. The body is a bit thin, however.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

One of over a dozen beers I picked up today while beer shopping in Chevy Chase MD. And since I (of course!) bought way too many, that means having to drink as much as I can, and carry the rest back with me to San Diego. So, with that "burden", what better way to make a dent in the stash than with this 500mL I've never seen before, eh? ;^)

I don't normally really go for Scottish Ales (and even less often, Scotch Ales), but this one caught my eye. Very clean and distinctive label, full of celtic designs, a wrap-around-the-entire-bottle panoramic scene, and a gold-on-blue-with-pale-red-highlights center motif. Proudly proclaims "Brewed in Scotland". And while the brewer proclaims itself to be "The Real (Ale) Taste Of Scotland", this isn't bottle-conditioned, and thus not Real Ale -- I guess the parenthesis make that subtle distinction, but seems a tad shifty to this CAMRA card-carrying member....

Anyway, this is a nice 40/- Scottish ale, IMO. Malty enough to fill the mouth, but not heavy enough to stay there for long. ;^) Easy quaffing this bad boy -- a session beer, if ever there was one.

Oh, and the smoked peat malt that this sort of beer demands? Thankfully not too out of control....

Reminded me the under-rated Pizza Port Dawn Patrol Mild Ale, actually -- in that both beers would be much improved (and down-right dangerously drinkable) if they were cask conditioned. And while this is not a Mild in the strictest sense of the word, it tends to share some similar aspects....

Either way, this is not the most complex or challanging beer one could taste from Scotland. But it is one of the better ones that have crossed my path. Worth a spin around the block.

Music: Old Man's Child "Vermin"
//TB

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

wow, real nice. pour a very nice reddish amber with a fluffy tan head that was huge. very sweet aroma that has hints figs and fruit. sweetish start that has a earthy finish