Belhaven Wee Heavy / 90 Shilling (Bottle)

Brewed by Belhaven (Greene King)
Style: English Strong Ale
Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland

Bottle. High creamy off-white and lasting head. Clear beautiful ruby body. Distinct and lovely barley malt aroma. Nothing else, simpel and good. Relatively sweet but not too sweet because of a nicely proportioned amount of carbonation. Long and good aftertaste. Nice surprise.

500ml bottle. Beautiful translucent dark reddish brown, with minimal head. Aroma of toasted dark bread. Starts lightly sweet, finish is nicely bitter, with almost no alcohol taste. Overall very nice.

Weak. Pours a deep red color. Smells like bread very intense nose. Small off white bubbly head. Not much taste. Malt and small amont of hops. Bottle says scottish ale. Not good.

Bottle. Dark clear amber color with an off white head. Aroma of sweet toffee malt with some yeasty and smokey flavors. The flavor finishes bitter and a bit astringent. I found it to be surprisingly carbonated. Overall pretty good.

Bottle. Aroma of caramel malt, some roasted/smoked malt, and cream. A little too much carbonation. And the flavor is similar to the smell, with some chocolate and spice in the finish.

500ml bottle. Rich brown, few red tints. Thick doughy head, laces well. Malty grain aroma, slight metalic tinge, quite ’savoury’. Smooth fullbodied malty taste, full of strange curiosities which I can’t quite place. Gravelly bitterness. Well balanced, certainly. Covers the 6.5% easily. Let it warm up to room temperature to appreciate its full body. It’ very tasty in big swigs, but probably rather dangerous.

0.5L bottle poured a murky amber-ish brown with fluffy tan head. The aroma is dusty caramelized malts, sweeter malts, molasses and a nice background of peat. The flavor is much the same with caramelized roasted malts, hints of dark fruit and nice load of peated malt. Then fruit type note surfaces that seems like dark chocolate covered apricots drizzled with toffee. Very enjoyable brew that became even better as it warmed.

Pours a hazy, dark brown color with nice ruby highlights and a light beige, average, creamy, frothy head; head is firm with a good frothy layer sticking around and tight, sporatic lacing. Nose is pleasant with dark caramels, brown sugar, toffee, raisins, and faint hints of cherry and peat smoke. Flavor is more than the nose suggested and works well to balance the rich malt tones. Brown sugar, dark caramels, light toffee match peat smoke, with fruits of raisin and light cherry and a hint of molasses. Bitterness is fairly low but flavor never becomes cloying with the sufficient peaty notes. Palate is medium to full, soft, and silky with a somewhat round character. Finish is a little dry and somewhat short with peat, brown sugar, and light raisin. Definately a solid beer with great malt complexities and a nice balancing peat flavor. All aspects of this one are good, just not great. One of the best scotch ales I’ve tried.