Traditional Scottish Ales Double Espresso Wild Oat Stout

Brewed by Traditional Scottish Ales
Style: Stout
Stirling, Scotland

Serve in English pint, Shaker, Snifter

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Bottle pours a raven black ale with a tan head which dissipates. Aroma of treacle and coffee. Taste a smoky treacle with black coffee. An interesting offering, one that intrigued me.

Aroma: Rich coffee and dark chocolate.

Appearance: Jet black body with a medium tan head. Good lacing.

Taste: Unlike previous raters, I found this to have quite a harsh bitterness (to be fair, the previous rate was from eight months ago...) Dark chocolate and espresso (living up to its name). Strong flavours but not the smoothest blend/balance.

Palate: Medium body with a watery, slightly oily texture. Flat carbonation.

Overall: As a Stout, it’s extremely rich, bitter and flavoursome. The balance isn’t quite there though and so it’s not very moreish (after half a pint, I’d almost had enough).

I am going to be going against the grain here, but I absolutely loved this. My notes reported, "Lovely! Exciting!" Great nose--vanilla, coffee, toffee/caramel. Fabulous flavors--jumping with coffee and interesting notes. Thin body, of course, but it’s British afterall. The best thing about this, we talked about, was its overwhelming tiramisu quality. Benjii agreed. I got this from a woman next to be at the bar, so she gets credit, but she’s absolutely right. This is tiramisu in a freakin’ glass--spectacular. (cask at the Scottish Real Ale Festival, Edinburgh, June 2012)

On cask at the Scottish Real Ale Festival, 2012. Pours a very dark brown colour with a fair light tan head. Aroma of tiramisu, caramel, sweet coffee and alcohol. Similar flavours with mild carbonation and an oily mouth-feel. A little sweet overall.

Pours a very dark brown, almost black, with a tan/cappucino head. Didn’t get much lacing and the head is quite short lived concidering the low ABV. As for the aroma, well, coffee. Yes. Definitely coffee. And some chocolate. But mostly coffee. The aroma sort of writes a check the taste can’t cash – slightly disappointing, but not bad as such. A lot of cappucino in the taste, some chocolate here as well and a hint of vanilla. Slight roastiness in the finish and the cappucino lingers. Mouthfeel not as thin as I feared, totally acceptable. Sort of thin cream. Well that would basically be milk, now wouldn’t it.

Sampled this speciality stout in the Salt Cot, Saltcoats (JDW) in November 2010. Cask, handpump dispense. Black with hints of ruby around the edges. Thick creamy buff tan head and good lacing throughout. Strong intense aromas of creamy mocha coffee that overwhelms everything else. Good creamy thick mouthfeel. Dark malts give full stout flavour with black malt giving a burnt toast note, followed by strong roast coffee beans, black treacle and fudge notes. Hard to detect any fruit notes, but coffee comes to the fore in powerful waves. Might be hop resins in this but hard to detect amongst the coffee onslaught. Finish is rather dry with sweet chocolate coffee cremes full in the mouth. This stout is by far the most coffee flavoured of any beer I have tasted so far. Some might find this too cloying though and I could only manage a pint - so not an ideal session stout. If you really like the taste of coffee though, then this is highly recommended.

Bottle from Mane Liquor. Wow. Didn’t taste like a beer at all. More like a triple espresso shot iced coffee. Unusual but not too shabby at all

Cask, King’s Head, Carlisle. Going on previous ratings, I’ve obviously found it in better condition than many. Heavy on the chocolate, sweet and rich and almost overloaded with flavour. A really interesting beer, but not one to drink more than a pint of in one session.

Black tan creamy head. Coffee raosted malt. Nice beer. Would have been even better if in good condition.

Cask at SRAF ’11. Jet black with brown highlights, no head to speak of. Huge coffee nose, sort of sweet Italian coffee as opposed to coffee grounds. Taste is a let-down though - thin and watery. Palate is sort of musky coffee grounds, very disappointing. Potential for a great beer, let down by poor execution.