Highland Tasgall Ale

Brewed by Highland Brewing Company
Style: Scotch Ale
Asheville, North Carolina USA

Good sized, light brown head of very, very fine and dense bubbles. Settles slowly and leaves a thick blanket of foam remaining. Rich malty aroma. Lots of toffee and caramel. Lots of roastyness and a hint of smoke. Color is a dark mahagony brown. Sweet malty flavor with a solid roasty and peaty background. Hint of smoke again. Thick and chewy and very smooth. Hides its alcohol very well. Flavor is a little weak though. Finishes pretty clean. A pretty good scotch ale.

Bottle thanks to ross. Dark mahogany pour with a small tan head. Brown sugar aroma, peat smoke, slight spicy hop background. Caramel flavor up front, roasty/smoky body, notable hop finish, and a little spicy. Creamy medium body, dry finish.

Bottle scored most likely from the Tom and Larry show. Deep brown colored with nice ruby highlights. Smaller fast fading head, some lacing. Big roasted grain aroma, lots of caramel. Full bodied. Exceptionally malty, light background of hops. Tasty.

22oz - Aroma is bitter toffee and carmel with a touch of toasted chocolate malt. Pours dark brown with a small head and decent lacing. Flavor is intense toasted barley, chocolate, toffee and carmel. Palate is chewy and creamy. A very nice Scotch ale.

From notes 9/27/05: Pours a deep leathery mahogany with a faint beige head. Delicious nose of caramelized sugars and sticky toffee. Mild peat and smoke from the bog. Ample hoppiness greets the nose through the malty thickness. Flavors offer up more than just heavily caramelized sugars, as a defined smokiness (almost a burnt offering) arises. Thick chewy malts and toffee. More peat. Gunsmoke. Hops kick in to offset the chewiness. Smooth and gliding down the gullet. A palate coater. Solid body, with an effortless carbonation. Subtle alcohol warmth. Looking forward to the next batch to be bottled. Highland Brewing, I doff my proverbial Gordon Highlander tartan cap to ye. Thanks for making my first North Carolina popped cap beer a good’un.

Thanks Ross! Pours a deep russet brown with a loose tan head. Aroma is huge caramel, chocolate, cookie maltiness. Sweet and alcoholic. The body is med.-thick. with low CO2. Resinous maltiness, lots of kettle caramalization. Some cocoa. Lite chocolate. Lite alcohol. Overall, very balanced. Nicely bitter sweet finish. Really great beer that doesn’t seem to know what it is. Not nearly thick enough for a Wee Heavy but not hoppy enough for an American Strong Ale.

Bomber courtesy of Ross, thank you! Scotch ales are amongst my least understood style of beer. Often I get confused between a "scotch ale" and a "Scottish" ale. My understanding of the style "scotch ale" is a malt oriented beer with strong leaning towards scotches. Since hops never did flourish in Scotland, but grains did (and still do), Scottish brewers have been aiming at pefecting heavily malted, sweet, and smokey beers using ingredients that are readily available to them. This one is brewed in North Carolina, which is thousands of miles from Scotland, but what’s clear is that Highland has done their homework. This beer is the deepest amber known to man. It pours almost still, with just a modest ring of beige foam. This beer transports you to a cloudy day in Scotland almost instantly. You’re sitting on your porch.You can smell the chimney smoke of your neighbour’s home, the single malt scotch that perhaps your father is enjoying while sitting in his chair inside. The fresh peat and wet wood of the nearby forest, where you used to play as a child. Your mother is just finishing cooking up dinner, and while you’re not sure what she’s made, you can smell the burnt sugars and figs of whatever it is. You close your eyes, your mouth waters, and you think of all these aromas you are smelling. Could there be something that tastes exactly how it smells..........suddenly your not in Scotland anymore.......but you’ve got a bottle of Highland’s Tasgall ale in front of you, and almost instantly you’re not surprised.

Bottle courtesy of Ross. Bottled at the brewery. Toasty malt aroma, with some plum notes, but not in your face. Pours cola brown with a foamy diminishing head. Slick but fizzy mouthfeel. Flavor of dark fruits , molasses, spice, and a hint of peat. Could use a little sweetness. Moderately bitter finish twith some Semi dry red wine notes. This has a pleasant lingering spiciness. An interesting take on a scotch ale, and Highlands best beer IMO. Although I need to rerate the other beers with non-contracted samples.