Oskar Blues Old Chub

Brewed by Oskar Blues Grill & Brew
Style: Scotch Ale
Lyons, Colorado USA

Motor oil. Perfect BBQ beer. Not for the virgin palate.. pretty imposing first drink. Will put proverbial hair on your proverbial ass.

Goodness in a can, I wish this were locally available. Dark mahogany pour with a pencil thin head and lacing that resembles land formations as seen on a globe. Brown sugar and milk chocolate on the nose with a strong woody, mulch aroma. Medium bodied with a harsh smoothness. Good flavor of black strap molasses and an earthy peaty taste. Chocolate and a hint of raspberry are in there as well. I only had one can, but I could see putting back a handful of these around a campfire. Nice beer.

Enjoyed while eating at Oggi’s while in OC. I started the night off with this one and perhaps it wasn’t the best way, but I’ve been wanting to try Old Chub for awhile now but couldn’t bring myself to buy a 6-pack. So here was my chance at $3.00 a can.

The beer pours out a rich mahogany brown, with garnet edges but a scant sized head. Perhaps the detergent used in the pint glasses killed the formation? After several swirls, it was a pretty lifeless pour. Aroma was sweet, almost fruity but in a soda pop/cola kinda way. More notes I keep picking up were nuts and toffee but it was all seemed lost somehow. Like I was only getting a quarter of what I was hoping to smell. Odd. Mouthfeel is a bit abrasive, but still mild mannered enough to enjoy. Flavors showed a giant dose of alcohol, some club soda like notes, caramel, light peat but overall just not enough there to really enjoy. It seemed overly hot and it just wasn’t working for me.

Dark ruby brown where little passes through, it appears clear in the thinnest part of the glass. Good head with great fluffy lace on the side of the glass. Strong caramel smell, but not sweet. Some darker malts offer a little chocolate aroma. Relatively dry brew, but still is predominately malty. The finish has a touch of hop, but what I notice is the amount of alcohol warmth after the swallow. Chewy with a low carbonation. I consider this to be a middle-of-the-road scotch ale. It is not a wee heavy although the alcohol would lead you to believe it is.

Dark, dark amber. I must admit, this smells and tastes like a cross between beer and scotch. A good scotch. Nice, deep peat & smoky flavor. Easy drinking, it doesn’t show it’s alcohol content as it goes down. Very good.

Pours transparent brown and the head atop is tan. yes, tan. bubbly, lacey, and tan. Nose is malty in nutty ways with a stream of caramel running through it. Nose fumes show some notes of alcoholic toffee as well, like if a heath bar was your drunken uncle’s dirty clothes but instead of smelling bad, smelled good. A little musty too...like a basement. something like a basement, i say. Smokey too actually...like your fingers, 3 days after smoking a cigarette if you never washed your hands. Flavors were smooth and toffee like..like toffee flavored silk, if silk were edible...even if it wasn’t edible, it may taste the same...but I dont want to talk about eating inedible things, because that may cause a stomach ache. There’s nut flavors that come about as well...i can’t really label it as any specific nut per se, but of all the flavors in the world, Im sure it comes closer to the general idea of nutty than any other general ideas out there. Then again, i could be wrong..I am generally nutty as well. There’s also a meaty smokiness behind everything...like, your drunken uncles fingers...if you sucked on them...which you would never want to do, im sure...but why note, it tastes damn good...in beer form, anyway. The alcohol here...kind of like a ghost. I dont believe in ghosts but I certainly believe in alcohol, so...it may not be quite like a ghost afterall...but like a ghost in movies, because I do believe in movies, at least most of them. I like this beer. I drink it out of the can as nature intended.

Very clean and easy to drink. never would guess the 8% abv. bitterness very subdued, too sweet for my tastes. nice carbonation. again, very sweet in my opinion. had my girlfriend try it and she couldn’t believe it even had alcohol in it. extremely balanced, dangerously drinkable, technically very good, but not for me.