Harviestoun Ola Dubh (30 Year Old)

Bottle. Thanks to the NATIFEST ’09 crowd. Pours a rich chocolate brown with a thin tan head. Aroma is roasted malts and sweet malts. Notes of Scotch, dark fruits (esspecially raisins), port wine, oak, and a tiny bit of smoke. On the palate it, it is rather creamy. The flavor really pulls everything togeather, finishing dry, leaving a nice alcohol burn and a tiny bit of a cigar aftertaste. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Pours a dark brown body with a thin ring of tan head. Awesome flavors of smoke and bacon. Some heat. Little dry on the finish.

Rating #300! Thanks to Savvy 1982 for sharing. Pours jet black with little to no head. Aroma is grainy and peaty. Cherry, peat, oak, dark fruit, and chocolate. Tastes really quite simple for what the price implies. Highland park (the in the middle of the road scotch) is in the fore front. Then chocolate, dark fruit, ash and alcohol. Carbonation is nice. This beer on the other hand, good not great and defiantly not worth the price.

Bottle. Pours dark, dark, cola brown, with o real head, nor any lacing. Nose is dark fruit, peat, whiskey, raisins, red wine, port, smoke, chocolate. Flavors of raisin, whisey, peat, chocolate, fig, somewhat vinous, a shade boozy. Soft carbonation, feels just a shade oxidized. Very nice, but for $17 US for 12oz, I probably won’t buy this again.

Tasted on tap. Black with a medium brown head. Aroma reveals subtle scotch notes, peat, iodine. The flavor is all dark chocolate with a smokey charcoal edge.

Bottle. Number 05815 from Sept 2007. Black pour with a short foamy tan head. Aroma is big peat and iodine, burnt wood, sea salt, roasted malt, and hints of chocolate. Taste is peat, smoky wood, treacle, iodine, light salty notes, roasted malt, hints of chocolate, and whisky. Touch more alcohol taste in this one than in previous iterations. Body is chewy and creamy with a medium overall feel. Finish is more iodine and peat notes, soft alcohol, treacle, roasted malt, burnt timber and hints of chili pepper. Very tasty stuff!

On freaking tap at Manderes in Folsom. What a treat! I’ve had a few of the Ola Dubhs in the bottle before but didn’t rate them. This pours jet black with an off white head that thins after a few minutes but leaves thick lacing on the sides of the glass. Nose isn’t as thick as I expected but is roasty and woody for sure. Flavor is balanced and not overpowering. Not chewey at all, very drinkable, although a little more body would have been fine. I was expecting the characteristics of a big imperial stout but this more resembles an aged porter. Taste is roasted malt, peat smoke, and whisky. My glass might be a little cold and I am finding the flavors open up as it warms slightly. Very good.

Wasn’t nearly as impressed w/ the 12 as this. While carbonation is very slight, the nuanced addition of what I took as some over none made a world of difference to me. And along with that was the manner in which the barrel aging worked in a very cohesive fashion leaving me extremely pleased. Beyond a sigh of relief to one of great pleasure.