Sea Belt Scotch Ale
Marshall Wharf Brewing Company in Belfast, Maine, United States 🇺🇸
Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy Regular|
Score
6.98
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
sampled at brewery in Belfast Maine - sampled in flight. I liked this - havent had a scotch ale in some time. good!
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
1 pint can. Pours hazy dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma is roasted malt, breadish and slight caramelish. Sweet, toasted malty and slight smoked touch. Lingering caramelish malty and breadish. Sweet and bitter finish.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Draught at Marshall Wharf tap room, Summer 2014
Inky ebony with some lighter mahogany tints on the edges and a beige head that shows moderate retention. Good clarity, not transparent completley, but not overly hazy.
Berries, prunes, melanoidins and some salty toffee-like sweetness in the nose. Light notes of vanilla, touches of alcohol dryness and more phenols on the end. There’s an underlying smoky/char-like character that MacFindlay has; very subtle and is of course here too. Quite stiff and robust aroma, if somewhat heavy on the char/prune/alcohol dryness/astringency. Don’t get the kelp in the nose.
Flavor is immediately dry, with very dry melanoidins, some light astringent notes from either the yeast phenols, alcohol or both. Vanilla-extract, saltiness and finally some light caramel sweetness coming on the very end. With more warming, the heavy dryness/astringency lessens somewhat, with more maltiness emerging. The grassy element, present in many of their beers is here, however and keeps the sweetness from ever really gaining much traction. Soft, salty-smokey notes abound, as well as interesting alcohol/phenolic notes on the end too. Not sure if the kelp is apparent or what it tastes like, but perhaps it’s responsible for the light saltiness. Very much like MacFindlay, with a bit more complexity and yet a bit more astringency.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Closest thing I had to a thistle was a pilsener. I did a short fast pour to open up the bottom and slowed to even out and hoped to capture what I needed to reinvent a thistle.
Here’s the rest.
The appearance was a glossy yet transparent bronzed brown to amber color with a two finger white foamy head that dissipated within less than a minute. Light lacing graced the sides in a messy sort of way.
The smell had a multitude of things going on, light apple with a quick smoke entering and leaving running amok, (what does seaweed smell like? beats me, but there’s something grassy/woody-ish - assuming that’s the sea weed, I guess).
The taste takes that apple flavoring and adds the smoke to balance, sweet brown sugar flares out to enliven and lead to a dry smoky aftertaste with no finish.
On the palate, this one sits fairly dry and about medium bodied. Smoky dry lingering woody/grassiness rolls over my tongue.
Overall, I say this was a decent Scotch ale, if I have again, I’d have in a thistle without experimental pours.