Hebridean Celtic Black Ale

Brewed by Hebridean
Style: Porter
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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Cask@Twickenham Beer festival. Thanks to Steve behind the bar for the heads up on this beer. Thankfully i didn’t end up buying a half pint. this was absolutely awful. Cosmetic boot polish and boiled vegetable. I hope to god something was wrong with this, because (pardon my French), it tasted like shit.

500 ml bottle. Inverness, Scotland.
Dark reddish brown colour with small tan head. Butter (quite rancid) and toasted malt in aroma. Toasted malt and bitterish hops in flavour. Boring.

Looking forward to this at the Troon Beer Festival in September 2004 and was bitterly disappointed. Cask, handpump dispense. Ruby black in colour with a very poor open buff head. Strong sulphurous aroma with notes of rotting seweed on a summers day wafting through. Thin watery mouthfeel and poor to non existant lacing. Dark malt gives a very poor insipid weak base with a slight note of burnt toast and diluted ribena juice. Poor hop content in the weak aftertaste, can just about make out a dusty bitter note. Weak malty watery finish, one of the worst bodies I have come across, completely lacking in depth and complexity. An Old Ale in style but failing on all levels. One to avoid.

Bottle. Nice head with good duration. Color is black. Aroma and taste are light sour roast malt, caramel, licorice and hops.

Bottle. Vintage. Courtesy Torben Mathews. Creamy lightbrown good mostly lasting head. Dark red amber colour. Moderate malty light hoppy aroma. Some roast and smoke. Light bitter strange flavor. Average finish. Watery palate.

Bottle from Sainsburys. It pours very dark ruby, with a quickly dissipating beige head. The nose is roasted malt, caramel, brown sugar, chocolate and sour tang. The taste is chocolate, roasted malt, cardboard, sour tang, burnt malt and liquorice, with a dry finish. It’s very thin and has low carbonation. Not great.

Bottle from Sainsburys. Very dark brown colour, reasonable head. Sour vegetable aroma. Very sour malty flavour, sour aftertaste. Undrinkable. This is very bad beer. Not really a porter. more of a mild ale.

[500ml bottle, Hebridean Brewery] Very dark brown pour with a thin white bubbly head. Slight aromas of roasted chocolate malt. Quite mild flavour all round, some toasty bitterness is evident but there’s not really much to it. Faint coffee finish. Would make a pretty good mild [15042009]

500ml bottle, Rehills, Ncl. Not convinced that this bottle has been capped correctly or there’s been a problem in the brewing/bottling process.. Sourness in the aroma, transfers to the taste, leaving little room for anything else. A bit metallic, certainly not like any porter I’ve had before and probably needs re-rating (I hope...)

bottle from the Morag hostel bar in St. Augustus - Pours near black and smells of roasted malt and coffee. The flavor is much the same with the coffee playing a fairly minor role. It’s medium bodied and overall fairly average.

500 cc bottle, black colour and no head (just like you’d drink a coca cola), smell: roasted malts.Taste: watery, roasted malts, sweet, malty and chocolate. Very monotone beer.