MacLean’s Scotch Ale

Brewed by MacLean’s Ales
Style: Scotch Ale
West Grey, Canada

Serve in Thistle

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Tap at Volo (cask). Great beer. Aromas of caramel, grain, and leaves. Taste is sweet, with good length. Palate is oily, and medium bodied. Red, with a thin head.

Cask at Victory Cafe Cask Ale Festival. Nice reddish brown colour with small head. Sweet malt flavour with fruit and hops noticeable. Balance aftertaste. Very nice beer.

Cask at Volo. Ruby brown body, creamy tan head (3+). Earthy malt aroma, muted herbaceous notes, quite pleasant but a bit mild for a biggish beer. Very light fruit as it warms. Similar flavour of earthy malt, very light pleasant hint of rooty anise like notes in the finish and aftertaste, fleeting glimpse of celery. Thin for the style but ample bodied for a cask (3+). Solid but a bit thin overall for the style. I think I might prefer this one on draft to cask. A very nice effort by F&M. I look forward to sampling this again.

Draught. At Volo. *Also had a smaller sample on cask, my rating is combined. Poured bright deep chestnut with a beautiful thick lasting beige head that looked like the top of an ice cream float. Sweet malt aroma, fresh oats and light perfume hops. Soft sweet cereal aroma, some sweet mild spice and a touch of alcohol in the finish. Soft - again - mouthfeel, creamy and only mildly carbonated, with a pleasant little kick of chocolate and booze in the fairly quick finish - an excellent mild session scotch ale, the cask was about .3 better.

Cask at C’est What. Clear dark red-amber with a small off-white head. Aroma of sweet malt and subdued hops, with a slight soapy note. Body is a bit thin, but suitable for a cask ale I suppose. Flavour is very nice, with some sweet marmalade and orange candy notes, earthy malt, and mild herbal hops. Finish is warm, with a slight booziness. Quite nice.

On cask for Cask Days at Volo in Toronto. Served in an English pint glass. Pours clear reddish amber with a rocky, tan head. The head remains but does not lace. The nose has aromas of whisky, caramel, brown sugar, fruit, licorice and a hint of earth. The flavour is moderately sweet up front, but becomes more so, with a nice herbal hop accent. The finish is longish and fairly sweet. It is medium in body with a smooth, creamy texture and flat carbonation. Overall, a decent malty Scotch ale with a hint of licorice. It works fairly well. 2010-10-29

On cask at the Wooly. Pours slightly hazy, coppery-amber in colour, very thin head. Aroma and taste are caramel malt, a little hint of smoke. Really good!

On tap at the Magpie - arrived clear ruby with a nice two finger creamy white head. Nice aroma of sweet malt, caramel, and a surprising amount of hops (for the style). Round and candy sweet with a subtle smokiness at the front of the mouth, then fairly thin and soft leading into a mildly bitter finish where the alcohol makes itself known. Not amazing, but pretty solid and sessionable scotch ale.

on tap at the Kiwi . Poured a slightly hazy light amber-orange with a 1 finger white cap that reduced to a good lace that stayed Medium carbonation. Best nose of all the F&M brews....aromas of toast, caramel malts and a thin whisp of sage or pine. Starts bolder up front than other brews from this brewer, with a nice oily mouth feel and medium body where the toasty-caramel malt sits in almost perfect balance with the musty-sage hopping. Finish is clean with a mellow hop aftertaste. The outstanding character of this brew for me was its uncanny, almost perfect balance. Strangely, one of the best balanced ales I ever tasted... A nice session brew...much like a light scotch ale....I’ll buy more

Cask at Volo. Pours a slightly hazy ruby-brown with a spare diminishing white head. Sweet, malty and fruity aroma. Flavour’s lightly smoky with malt, fruit and a hint of chocolate and hops -- it’s a touch watery but not too bad. Light bodied. Pretty good and a nice effort from F & M.