Isle of Skye Cuillin Beast

Brewed by Isle of Skye
Style: Scotch Ale
Uig, Isle of Skye, Scotland

I’ll tip this with my usual bias towards UK beers. Moderately sweet, lightly peaty, almost comes off as a brown. Pipe tobacco notes. Medium body. Orange/ brown, nice head which faded at the right pace. Good bottle, fair label. Didn’t take copious notes as I was at the pub with a business acquaintence, but it was very good. McNiven’s, Indianapolis.

The beer after its extrication from the 25-ounce brown bottle sets in the glass murky burnished copper color with a bubbly light tan head and the residual lace a thin covering upon the glass. Nose has a hint of peat, tobacco like, fresh and crisp, start is sweet with a nice malt presents, top is modest in its feel. Finish is benign in its acidity with the hops pleasantly mild in their spiciness, sweetly dry aftertaste and a nice drinkable beer, a welcomed change of pace. About time, I get used to these beers as I have bought a home and some land in Scotland, and the old “Gusler” will be retiring to a small farm in the near future, soon as I can finish one to ten at Maricopa County lol, geez had a full time job for 46 years and still got a couple to go.

Clear amber beer. Strong sweet caramel aroma. Also very sweet flavor of malt and caramel and a little smoke in the background. Somewhat thin and watery. A nice and flavorfull beer but could use some bitterness.

Bottle: Lighty cloudy reddish orange with a sparse large bubbled head, alcohol in the aroma with orange, medium bodied, starts and ends lightly sweet, with a staleness at the end.

Pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, light tan colored head that sits atop an amber colored brew, which shows a lightly hazy, pinkish tinged, red colored beer when held up to the light. Strong aromas of diacetyl contribute a definitely distinct aroma of butterscotch & butter, though it is not at the rancid butter stage. Underneath the dominant butterscotch aromatics is perhaps a hint of fruitiness and a touch of toasted malt aromatics; both of these are probably substantial, but I have a really hard time detecting them under all of the diacetyl.

Soft, slightly creamy textured, yet it has a light prickle of carbonation to it. Toasty malt notes reminiscent of lightly browned biscuits, toasted bread, a touch of roast grain and lots of dark bread flavors are all noticeable. The malt character tends to especially linger on in the mouth. The diacetyl flavor contribution is much reduced, when compared to the nose, but does add some definite butterscotch notes here as well. Up front the notes of butterscotch, caramel and toffee mix, but this then slowly yields to the dry, toasty malt notes previously mentioned.

While the aroma is not so bad, it is certainly almost exclusively one-dimensional in its butterscotch focus. The flavor actually sort of works; I had written this beer off after smelling it, but it is actually fairly enjoyable in the flavor department.

Cloudy Amber Coloring. Sudsy Head. Smokey Aroma and Flavor...Jinkies... Peaty I would agree... Not Real Typical fo Scottish Ale...Plenty of Character Though.. Definitly Worth Trying.

Cloudy amber body topped by a smallish white head. The aroma is heavily malty. It’s really more earthy than peat smokey, but I like it. The more it warms, the maltier it gets, until I actually start digging on it by the end of the bottle. The beginning starts off a little weak with a bit of caramel, but this beer really has to warm to come into its own.

Mine was labelled as "Wee Beast" with a picture of a lady on the label. It’s kind of a hazy amber color with very little head and some lacing. Sweet and smoke malty aroma. Taste is thinner bodied, smoky caramel, nuts, earthy; minimal hop finish. Almost tastes watered down.