Belhaven Wee Heavy / 90 Shilling (Bottle)

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

Serve in Thistle

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UPDATED: MAY 20, 2013 Pours a clear, reddish cola brown color. Not much of a head forms, but the beer retains a thin caramel colored, creamy cap that improves the overall appearance. The nose consists of lightly spiced raisins with some metallic notes. The mouthfeel is full, a bit cottony, and creamy, with some soft carbonation. Sweet medium-roast malt and ripe non-citrus fruit dominate the flavor. Just a touch of grassy bittering just before the finish. There’s a metallic flavor that appears at the finish.

Bottle at Williams Pub, Uppsala. Pours reddish dark brown with a little head. Aroma has sweetish maltiness with a notable dried fruity character with a note of berries. Taste is medium to heavy sweet, syrupy and caramel maltiness featuring alongside ripe fruitiness. Medium to full body, sticky texture. This was a bit too sweet for me, I’d have preferred more balancing bitterness.

Poured from 500 ml bottle. Clear, dark rusty red-brown with a yellow-khaki head and fair lacing. Aroma of sweet mild skunk (if that makes any sense), barnyard, grain, caramel and light fruit. The skunk aroma not really unpleasant; it is closer to musk than to the "skunked" beer aroma. It is strong though and definitely not what you are looking for in a wee heavy. . Taste of skunk again, along with caramel, earthy hops, lemon, metallic, grain and light fruit. Medium body and low/medium carbonation. Overall, disappointing. I don't want a wee heavy that reminds me of musky animals. I note that it comes in a clear bottle, but I stored it in light-free beer fridge. There is no date on the bottle, so I cannot be sure it was fresh when I purchased it. But, it the brewer choses to put beer in clear, undated glass bottles, I'll rate based on how it tastes when it reaches it my glass. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Aroma: caramel, bread, earthy, dark fruit. Taste: rich malty, caramel and medium sweet, dried fruits, low hop bitterness. Overall: good strong ale.

This brewery does itself a real disservice by putting the beer in clear bottles as this one skunked out. From what I could tell there was a sweet malty aroma laying beneath. The color was amber with a white foamy head. The taste was more sweet caramelized malts with a burnt sugar tinge on the back end. I can always detect the alcohol with this style even when it’s as low as this one. I’m sure this would have been better had it not skunked; however, it still seemed average for the style.

Head: tan, medium, frothy. Colour: ruby-red-brown and clear. Aroma: caramel, nutty, bit of alcohol and some herbal notes. Taste: sweet, caramel, roasty-alcoholic bitterness. Quite solid and full-bodied.

Bottle, rated from backlog. Aroma of roadsted malt, caramel, honey, burnt sugar and dried fruits. Taste is heavy sweet and light bitter with sugary notes.

Pours very dark and thick. First thing that hits senses is aroma. Got the taste of those ales from northern England/Scotland. Not much head but it leaves sweet, malty taste on middle of the tongue. Packs a kick at 6.5%. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Dark ruby color with no head. Aroma of skunk, malt, straw, caramel. Taste is light sweet, light bitter. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation. Interesting but not great.

Bottle. Pours a clear darker brown color with some red in it and a moderate off-white head. Nose is definitely vary malty, with some nuts, bread, and caramel in there. Taste is a little bit sweet, with a slight bit of toasting coming through in addition to the other malts.