Mc Chouffe

Brewed by Brasserie d’Achouffe (Moortgat)
Style: Scotch Ale
Achouffe, Belgium

Serve in Thistle

Beer pours attractive dark mahogeny color with a big, then totally retained beige colored head. Aroma is strongly malty with a very nice yeast aroma as well. Flavor is wonderful, mallty, nutty, delicous yeast and earth. Mouthfeel is perfect, soft, creamy, perfect carbonation. Nobody can touch the Belgians in terms of palate. Wonderful stuff!!!

UPDATED: SEP 3, 2006 Medium brown colour with a thick, billowy head. Aroma of yeast, wood, prunes, figs, toffee and bog myrtle. Spicy, yeasty tones overly a rich toffeeish, earthy maltiness. Sweet demerara and deglet noor finish. Sturdy alcoholic punch comes in late. Quality brew, and after 2 years in the cellar it emerges as a world classic.

ever spend forty five minutes searching for tasting notes on a beer you’d once cheerfully labored over-- but never got around to posting on ratebeer? i just did, and never succeeded in finding those notes. it’s easy to romanticize what great truths i might have recorded in those lost impressions. i might have had all of the perfect descriptions set out in elegant prose-- descriptors so "dead on" that the brewer would have wanted to emboss them on his label. perhaps the achouffe people would have paid my way to belgium and named a giant fermenting vessel after me in a grand, fireworks lit, celebratory festival of honor. well, all that is as doubtful as george bush winning a sierra club endorsement-- but at the very least i would have had a head start on describing this baby. now the beer is almost gone, and all i’ve recorded is that "it’s brown, it’s good, and it kicks ass". i’ll have to work fast. first observation: what is that cartoon goblin on the label doing? why do these little freaks always look like their wringing something unsavory out of their beards? the beer itself appears like a cheddar orange substance that’s been baked to a deep pumpkin pie brown. pouring, it has a playground kind of vigor and excitability: the carbonation is sparkly in the glass-- and later, on the tongue as well-- but is too wily and disorganized to maintain much real head. nose has a bit of mandarin orange, coffee, peat --and good ol’ fashioned alcohol in a quantity sufficient to cause one to decide not to go out and participate in motor sports, do competitive shooting, or perform on the balance beam after the beer is finished. snappy carb, a touch of sour cherry and baker’s yeast among the more obvious nutty, pastry-like sweet malts and that zest of citrus bitterness. the later is beyond what we’d probably look for in a scotch ale, but it engenders a nice lingering element if one is not too picky about ’styles’. very tasty medium-bodied belgian strong/scotch crossover. now that i’ve finished-- i was going to go out and operate some heavy construction machinery, but again, the warming ABV in the mc chouffe has had a soothing and tranquilizing effect-- and i know they won’t be "embossing" my impressions. maybe i’ll just stay in and listen to old records. pass me that old coleman hawkins record, pretty please.

This beer is full of character and taste. Earthy with fruit, chocolate, caramel and coffee. Spicy on the finish. Chouffe are good at this beer lark!

Murky brown colour. Aroma of caramel, slightly hoppy, yeasty. Flavour is sweet, of caramel, yeasty, sweet. Finishes slightly bitter and fizzy. Quite nice.

What a great ale. I could enjoy this one for days. Big head that settles slowly, strong earthy aroma and dark brown color. Taste is complex but amazingly well blended. Fruit and nuts,smoke and spice. I would recommend this ale to anyone.

Bottled: Hazy amber coloured. Huge brownish medium lasting head. Fruits, malt, yeast in the nose. Yeast, liqourice, light roastyness and malt in the flavour. Smooth. Well hidden alcahol. Dry and sweet finish.

4/14/04: Bottle.
Garnet body with an almond colored head. Some lacing. Top has patches of froth. Nose has a large alcohol smell, followed by raisins and spice. Semi-sweet malt taste. Flavor is quite interesting, with notes of caramel and spice. Nicely carbonated with a delicate mouthfeel. Alcohol taste is hidden fairly well.