McEwans Scotch Ale

Brewed by John Smiths (Heineken UK)
Style: Scotch Ale
Tadcaster, England

Serve in Thistle

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Pours a mahogany black/brown with a light brown head. Smells lightly fresh, some hops and chocolate. Taste is super-sweet, sugary syrup, molasses Burnt flavors, roasted chocolate malt finish the flavor. Tastes like a sherry to me, way too sweet. This could be useful for sipping in 2-3oz portions, but drinking 12 oz is impossible. Terribly unbalanced, sweet beer. Had out of a 12 bottle purchased at Bailey’s Pub in Arlington, VA.

Me no, not like, me thinks it tasts icky, me passed it on to Sully, Sully was very happy about this... beer should not have a lingering chocolate finish...

A dark nutbrown beer with a fine but fast diappearing lightbrown head. The aroma is very sweet with no complexity. The flavor is malty sweet with notes of roasted malt but no bitterness. It is very strong and very sweet for a Schottish ale. Too sweet and simple for me.

Will have to re-rate based on the numerous good ratings here and age of my first rating (~2 years ago). But this was not to my liking at all. Poured fine with a dark brown color and the aroma was fine with the malts expected but the taste was just dreadful. Honestly had trouble finishing 12 oz. Might have also had a bad bottle.

This is my first scotch ale and since this is considered to be the best I guess i don’t care for the syle. Pours a dark brown and smells good, but Gagggggg SWEET! Drinking this beer is like eating an entire tube of tooth paste; sweet and ichy. I couldn’t finish it. The worst thing is the price. WARNING THIS IS EXTREAMLY SWEET!!!!!!!�

Currently the worst beer I’ve ever had. It tasted like drinking mercury. Some hops that are extremely watered down. Awful.

Quite watery. Malt aroma present but not too pleasent. Not a good representative of the style , in my opinion.

Bottled, pasteurised. Deep red beer with thin head. Awful stewed malt flavour over sweet and overbrewed. No decent qualities whatsoever, thankfully it is mostly exported.

I used to drink this ale often, but left it for a few years. When returning to taste it I couldn’t believe that a product could go down the tubes in quality. I used to love it’s sweet scotch richness and satisfying aftertaste, but now I would rank it next to Doblers Ale if they still made it.

UPDATED: JUN 25, 2011 Been anticipating the taste of my first scotch ale. Pours dark in my steeler stein, no discernable aroma. Initial slurp is pretty flat and bitter malty. A little viscous. Finish is alcohol and bitter, lingering...oooooo. Would pass this up in the future.