Sprecher Pipers Scotch Ale

750ml bottle. Pours a dark, clear mahogany with a thin mocha-colored head. Aroma is sweet with a backbone of molasses and caramel alongside notes of roasted malt, yeast, and a certain scotch-like smokiness. Taste is light and smooth, with a smoky flavor giving way to a sweeter crisp finish of hops and chocolate. I was expecting something with a fuller body and taste, but this still isn’t anything to sneer at.

A black-as-night pour with a thin, frothy head. Aroma includes chocolate, dulce de leche, and toasted malt. The flavor is, by and large somewhat underwhelming, starting with an earthy, watery start, but transforms into a sweet, smokey, peat-like finish that lingers on the palate for long after. Best paired with a young gouda, perhaps Wisconsin Marieke, and crisp, tart apples.

Pours a muddy brown red with no head. Aroma is very sweet with notes of chocolate, peat, smoke, and candied sugar. Flavor is not really congruent with the sweetness in the nose. It is mostly a smokey brew with flavors of mesquite, some salt, bbq, campfire etc. A little chocolate peaks through after the smoke and the beer finishes crisp with a light bitterness. A little too smokey for me, but all in all not a bad beer.

Bottle. Almost cranberry red color with a slight head. Very smokey aroma. Sickly sweet and somkey taste with lots of malt. Personally, I hate smoke beers and anything with intense smoke flavor. If you like smoke, you’ll love this. I, however, find the taste so distinct and powerful that it overwhelms many beers. Very bitter finish.

16oz bottle-A dark amber light brown body with a head that dissipates into a small covering of the body. Aroma of dark roasted malt, caramel, burnt cofee, maple, and toffee. Taste of initial maple syrupy followed by more sweetness. A real sweet beer for a Scotch Ale.

Tasted 10/5/07. 16oz bottle. Mildly opaque with a brown amber hue. Aromas of maple cinnamon and sweet sugary breads. Smokey malty aromas. Sticky and medium bodied. Malty woody flavors. Mild hops. Long lingering smokey anise finish. Meh...

Bottle number 39319 FL, 063471541, Sampled October 2007
Hmm, a salty smoke character wafts from the beer as I pour this; I bet some peat smoked malt was used here. The beer pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, amber tinged, tan colored head. The beer sits in my glass a drab, concentrated, very dark, amber color, but shows a striking, brilliantly clear, garnet color when held up to the light. Wow, this has a lot of peat character here; I was expecting something on the subtle side based on the bottle description, but this is full on salty, smoky, pungently sweet, peat smoke character. The peat character is not huge though and I can get other aromatic notes from the nose; aromas of raisins, toasty grain, caramelized sugars and bright-sweet plum are all noticeable up front, but quickly disappear under the peat if you spend an extended time smelling this brew.

Sweetish and malt up front, this beer tastes of malt derived raisins and prunes up front. This quickly moves towards the phenolic peat notes that more or less dominate the finish of this brew. The peat-smoke character is not quite as dominant in the flavor as it was in the aroma, but it still plays a major role in the finish of this beer. Salty and earthy, with a smoky phenolic note that at times can approach burnt plastic. Despite the malt sweetness, this beer only has a medium heft to it; this helps to keep this drinkable, though a bit more body and malt might stand up to the peat character a bit more. The sweet notes lean towards complexly caramelized / maillard malt sugar notes, but don’t quite get fully there. What should be rich & malty, somehow has a little bit too much of a simplistic, simple, sweet malt character to be great (this again going back to the body of the brew).

For those who like lots of peat smoked malt in a beer, this should be right up your alley. Despite a love for smoky, single malt Islay’s, I prefer a very subtle backdrop of peat, that just perks up the complexity of a brew. While I would not categorize this as a heavy handed use of peat, I think this would be a much better for me if it had a bit less. Half this amount would still be quite noticeable, and even an 1/8 the amount that was used would add to the complexity of the base beer. While I don’t quite think that this beer works, it is quite engaging, and quite contemplative; if the malt character were kicked up a notch (meaning bumping up the final & original gravities a corresponding amount through more malt used and a higher mash temperature) this beer would be quite a bit more enjoyable and even down right great. Still, I am enjoying this brew, so I certainly can’t complain too much.

burnt amber color and small off white head. strong aroma of smoked toffee malt and earth. medium thin bodied. complex taste of dusty earth, candied caramel, and a fruitiness that seems to be chocolate raisins and oranges. this beer is good but almost a little confused. the flavors dont really seem to meld.