One of those old school Scotch ales in Belgium which are still effectively labelled as such, but I’m not sure this is still made since CTS is ’back in town’... This was a dark brown beer with ruby hue, off-white head and a rather thin body, grainy and a bit metallic and otherwise overwhelmed by candi sugar sweetness from beginning to end; corn is clearly applied here. Finish was a bit dry but not enough to prevent the sugary sweetness from cloying. Like so many other old school Belgian beers that are nearly forgotten, this was simple and thin, a bit boring perhaps, but in all more interesting than many other AB InBev products. Had an old fashioned feel to it, arousing the amateur of Belgian beer history in me.

Ins Glas ergießt sich ein dunkel rötlichbraunes Bier mit ordentlicher Schaumkrone. Geruch röstmalzig süß, fruchtig. Geschmack fruchtig, röstmalzig, dunkle Früchte.

At De Lantaarn, Leuven. Poured a daaark red, almost blackish, with an off white head. Sweet malty nose, plums, creamy, sweet plum taste. Simple, kinda nice, but again, nothing too wild, nothing too special. Ok.

This is a review of a brown 25cl bottle, best before 02 Oct 2008, drank on a cold and very wet Jan evening 2008, in Shropshire England. Poured into one of my Gordon’s thistle shaped glasses, well it is a Scotch Ale. It looks grand, a clear and deep ruby red body with a full light brown foaming head. The head soon however fell away. The aroma was of raisins and slightly burnt malty biscuits, very interesting. The flavours were interesting too, again raisins, but this time soaked in alcohol with plums (not a plumb weight), the malty biscuit smell is transfered into a sweeter burnt caramel taste. The beer is a little to carbonated for me and the alcohol tang fills the mouth in the aftertaste a little to much, otherwise it is fine. If the head had stayed and the beer wasn’t so ’fizzy’ I would have scored this really high. The alcohol doesn’t have enough body to work with, it isn’t watery but it just doesn’t sit right, good but not great.

Dark mahogany brown. Malt aroma, slightly metallic. Very rich, creamy malty flavour. Caramel sweetness. Alcohol balances the sweetness well.