Big Time Damned Spot Strong Scottish Ale

Brewed by Big Time Brewery
Style: Scottish Ale
Seattle, Washington USA

Serve in English pint, Thistle

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Draft at brouwers inpenerateablt dark brown black visual with a coating of head. Big caramel malt aroma with sugars and sweet clove nutmeg notes. Sugar sweet flavor. Rich palate.

Draft at the brewery. Comes out very nearly opaque black, light rubied highlights. Not much head. No lace. Mild sweet nose, some caramel, anise, and black bread. Creamy medium body, light carb. Sweet and candy-bar-ish without much else in the flavor profile to balance out those things. Pleasant, and well-made, but kind of off in its own little universe in terms of what it wants to be. Much sweeter than you’d expect from a scottish, which is fine--it can be its own thing. But if it’s going to abandon the expected graininess and earthiness of a scottish, it’ll have to find something else to balance out this sweetness.

Draught at Brouwer’s Café: Cola in cola, a bit more muddy tho, moderate beige oriented head, sudsy, nice lacing.   Very light chocolate malt aroma.   Also getting either Spruce or Pine.   Not really any campfire, ash, or charred wood.   Smooth, very smooth on the tongue.   A bit of hops, pine/spruce are showing up.   Chocolate malt is pretty heavy, cocoa lingers.   Interesting concoction.   A little hop zing on the backside.   This one is warming.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel, fairly sooth.   At the finish I do get something that to slightly resembles a cleaning agent or something.   Could be the alcohol?   Decent little beer, but doesn’t have all the qualities I would look for in a Scotch Ale.   Feels more like a Brown with heavier than normal Chocolate malt and less bitterness.

(Draught) Sampled at the brewpub. Pruney, warm with a deep brown body. Heavy malts - a mild tin and strong scotch finish. For someone who generally doesn’t like Scottish Ales, this one was palatable.

UPDATED: MAR 19, 2009 Tap at the brewery. 12/12/07

Pours a deep brown with a modest head and big lacing. In addition to the expected malts, the aroma hints at sour wood, apples, and pie cherries. In the flavor we get fairly sweet flavors, though not sticky-sweet: molassass,and carmal, overlaid on a strong roast malt background with fruits flitting to the surface. Dark cider, maybe a whisper of smoky peat, some mocha coming on late. Warming, milding prickly mouthfeel, with the whole coming together well above the sum of its parts. Good beer.

3/18/09 Forgot I’d had this one. Rating and score above pretty much holds.

Gorgeous deep, dark mahogany with a fine head. Aroma of sugary maltiness, and alcohol is not readily detectable. Flavor of sugary maltiness, high amounts of unfermented sugars--perhaps somewhat under-attenuated, some molasses and winey/port notes, with a sour barrel finish.