Barrio Scottish Red

Brewed by Barrio Brewing Co.
Style: Scottish Ale
Tucson, Arizona USA

Serve in English pint, Thistle

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Filled corny at the brewery. Tasted on tap at home. Glowing reddish brown. Crystal clear. Beautiful pillowy head. Aroma is malt and herbal hops. Taste includes sherry, molasses, herbal hops. Palate is balanced, maybe a tad on the malt side. Little hop presence. Head remained thick halfway down the glass with great lacing throughout.

Deep amber pour with creamy white head and lace. Sweet caramel aroma. Sour malt funky musty roasted malt and a light bitter. A tad thin and fizzy.

Scotch Ale–on tap-pours a tight light tan head and copper color. Aroma is sweet light/medium malt-caramel. Taste is sweet light/medium malt-caramel/sugary, some herbal hops.

on tap as part of the sampler pours dark amber with a thin tan head. Aroma is fruity yeast, caramel and some white pepper. Flavor is big sweet toffee, bitter rye or dark malts and a nice semi-sweet caramel finish.

[Tap] Had on tap at Gentle Ben’s under the name ’Scottish Ale’. Didn’t add it to the database since Barrio and Gentle Ben’s need to be combined anyway. Pours a light copper color with a thin head. Aroma of sticky caramel, toffee and light peat. Sweet malty taste follows closely with the aroma. Mild peat and toasted bread in the taste. Mild hopping in the finish. Still a bit on the sweet side. Seemed to be lacking a few key aspects of the style.

On tap at Barrio
Appearance: Clear copper with a small off-white head and some light lacing
Aroma: Caramel and toasted malts
Taste: Toasted malts, caramel with some bitter hops in the finish
Decent.

Draft at Barrio. Pours clear amber, thin off-white head, spotty lacing. Nose is margarine, theater popcorn, ambiguous fruit. Flavours of vile butter - I really wonder what happened here, this shouldn’t be this bad...

Red pour. Peat aroma, caramel, yeast, bread, light fruit. Flavor is lightly bitter, malty, honey, lots of bready yeast on the end. Ok.

On tap @ Barrio - Pours a brown color with mahogany edges and a faint light tan head. No lacing. Aroma and flavor is sweet caramel malt, esters, and light floral hops. Medium body. A decent beer.

Sampled on tap at Barrio Brewing; March 2010
This beer arrives with a hazy appearance and is topped by a lightly amber / brown tinged, tan colored head. The beer is a touch more amber hued than the Dunkel Weizen I just had, but still brown in color. When held up to the light it shows that it is not opaque, but definitely hazy and has an amber-red color. The aroma is mildly malty and fruity up front; as it warms it even starts to take on a sort of cotton-candy like note to it that boosts the fruitiness, this last, ultimately, comes to dominate the aroma. There is a hint of spiciness in the nose as well. The aroma is actually interesting because it is so far out of the bounds of the style.

The flavor is super, super fruity tasting, which accentuates the sweetness of the beer; this is just so out of place for a normally clean Scottish styled beer. There is some toasted grain and just a hint of husky (from grain husks) roasted notes that add some spiciness to this brew. The fruit notes lean towards berries and currant like flavors. Some definite light roast notes contribute a hint of astringency and some bitterness to the finish. This has a medium’ish body to it, though it maintains a fair amount of drinkability. As the style dictates, this is richly malty, though much of the caramelized malt character is buried under the expressive fruit flavors.

Not a bad beer, but it is definitely unexpected given the billing of this beer; I am curious where all this fruitiness came from, as a traditional Scottish ale yeast is quite clean when fermented properly.