Schloss Eggenberg MacQueens Nessie (7.3%)

Formerly brewed at Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg
Style: Smoked
Vorchdorf, Austria

Clear golden body topped by a little white ring. Not a very flavourful beer, even the alcohol taste is missing. Light body, soft carbonation, a little toasted bread taste, a touch of smoke, some ashes, Not even a flavour whisky malt which is supposed to be the main taste. Boring and without personality. Junk-beer, McQueen, do you want fries with that?

33,cl. Pours a light-medium, perfectly clear amber. Light, moussy white head with lots of clingy whipped-egg-white lace. Cloying bready, datey, toffee-ish nose. Weak body, low carb, aggressive flavors: the bread, dates, and toffee come through, along with an overwhelming sour metallic tang for the finish. Evidently that tang is supposed to be the smoke. Not a disaster, but you can see them from here.

Alcohol nose, with malt and humbugs, amber, pours a small, very short lived white head. Candied malt flavour, humbugs again and the ever present alcohol. Full bodied, bitter, alcohol isn’t subtle, and not once did I get smoke from this. Ordinary stuff.

This beast pours amber with a medium white head that leaves good lacing. Aroma is very sweet, big malts with a scotch smell to it. I was expecting this brew to have a very thick syrupy body to it from the aroma, but instead it has a nice medium body, very smooth. Very sweet malt start, caramel and grainy tastes with a scotch hint in the finish. For a smoked brew the smoked malts are very subtle, if I hadn’t have read it above I would have never guessed it.

The commercial description seems inaccurate. This didn’t seem smoky at all. It’s like a scottish ’wee heavy’ in a way and doesn’t hide its 7.3% alcohol all that well. My bottle says it’s a ’red ale’ but it’s the color of Coors. I didn’t care for it much.

Clear light golden body with a thin white head. Light malty aroma, some tea hints. Sweet roasted malt aroma with a light hint of smoke.

Not a bad beer, although I agree with many other raters that it lacks complexity that it could have. The smoke is certainly not detectable enough, and could be peatier. Still, I enjoyed it more than I thought.

Sparkling gold, thin head, constant carbonation. Very appealing floral, winey, & woodsy aroma, plus maybe a slight scent of pears. Crisp flowery hop flavors to start. Thickish mouthfeel. Peppery through the taste with a slight hint of malty sweet at the finish. I really did not pick any smoked or whiskey flavors, it was more like a drier than normal triple. Tasty, nonetheless.