Big Sky Heavy Horse Scotch Ale

Brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company
Style: Scotch Ale
Missoula, Montana USA

Serve in Thistle

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Bottle; poured a dark auburn-ruby color with a tan head. Aroma of sweet malt, caramel and fruit. Flavor was sweeter than expected with some dark fruit, fruit, caramel and maybe some cocoa and earth. A bit simplistic.

Brown pour with a tan head. Aroma is malty and sweet. Flavor is sweet, but with some nice toasty malt and fruity flavors. Overall...Meh.

tap @ Hamiltons. Pours sepia dark brown with an off white head. Great thick maltiness and a small bit of peat. Good chocolates. This might be my favorite from this brewer!

Draft at International Tap House-Soulard. Pours a dark reddish-brown color, clearer around the edges, with a small beige head. Aroma of sweet caramel malts, brown sugar, dust, raisins, wood, and peat. Flavor of sweet caramel malts, raisins, dust, earth, wet leaves, brown sugar, and toast. The flavor ends a little too quickly. Medium-bodied, though it finishes lighter, with mild carbonation and a sweet, earthy mouthfeel. Not bad but nothing special.

05-Jan-11 (12-oz bottle: Purchased 03-Dec-10 for $1.99 at the Pizza Port Bottle Shop in Carlsbad, CA) In the glass, this beer is deep copper and perfectly clear in appearance. The beige head pours to half an inch in height before settling at a typical rate to a patchy sheen. The sugary sweet and fruity nose smells more Belgian than Scottish, offering aromas of caramel, brown sugar, figs, earth, dusty cobwebs, and apple skins. The beer is much more typically malty on the palate: sweet, caramely, toasty, and slightly roasty. Floral and grassy hop flavors are present with mild bitterness, and a modest fruitiness gives the beer added complexity, but a hint of apple skin is a slight distraction. Weight is a bit light for a Scotch Ale, clocking in at medium or maybe even medium-minus, and carbonation is light-medium. Despite the malty sweetness, the finish is somewhat dry and slightly astringent. A decent beer overall, one that I enjoy just because I like malty beers in general, but as a Scotch Ale, this is average at best.

(12oz bottle thanks to Mora2000) clear rich ruby/orange with a few bubbles. Nose of caramel, graham cracker, sweet grain, toasty. Taste of caramel, toasty grain, creamy body with a medium thickness.

(12oz bottle, courtesy of Mora2000) Pours a clear amber body with a medium beige head. Aroma of cherry, caramel, subtle vinous, and light roasted grain. Flavor of caramel malt, peat, toffee, and some herbal hops.

Tap at Anchor, Wichita, KS.
Pours a deep, thick mahogany amber with a nice beige head. Aroma is sweet malt with cherries and rasperries, and a slight oak and peat/seaweed essence. Flavor is tea leaves, raisin/seaweed malt, and a slight cherry finish. Average mouthfeel. Too funky and discombobulated.

Pours very ruddy dark copper with a tan head. Rich malty aroma. Med body/foamy carb. Rich warm malt flavor with a bit of hop. It drinks well. Finishes malty but not sticky.

Brown pour. Beige head. Aroma is malty and sweet smelling. Maply syrup, brown sugar, dark agave syrup. Flavor is too damn sweet. Some ok fruity flavors and a pretty nice mouthfeel, but too sweet.