7

Last night. Villa Park.

7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8

On tap at the Perimeter Taco Mac. Dark brown color, with a small, tan head. The aroma is vanilla, caramel, peat, and light smoke. The flavor is very sweet, with light earthiness. Medium body, smooth, and a little lively on the tongue. This is a nice, mild, and very approachable scotch ale. Well done.

8.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7.5

Deep dark brown coloured body with a one centimetre tall light brown head. Aroma of alcohol, bananas, yeast, oak, malt and a ton of toffee and sweetness. Medium to Full-bodied; Strong alcohol flavour with a lot of nuts, earth, toffee and raisin flavour at first with a good grape-y finish and some smooth light hops. Aftertaste shows a lot of alcohol and somehow even more toffee and nuts - very nice. The toasted malt flavour and sweetness comes through nicely, but leaves the palate doused with a lot of taste. Overall, a nice scotch with the flavours you’d expect and a complex profile to finish off the beer. What you’d expect from this brewery - another consistently good beer for the style and one that everyone should sample. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Total Wine in McLean, Virginia on 04-January-2013 for US$2.49 sampled at home in Washington on 22-March-2013.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

12 ounce bottle. Deep mahogany red/brown colo. Small beige head. Rich dark fruit malt nose. I smell prunes, soy sauce, burnt wood and autumn leaves. First sip brings notes of burnt sugar, licorice, spruce and wood. Complex bittersweet malt and hops in midtaste and finish. Very noticable alcohol taste. Sticky treacle aftertaste lies long on the palate. This is a big brew and very tasty. Worth seeking out.

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle. Pours a clear deep amber with a light brown head that dissipates to the edges and laces slightly. Aroma has a good amount of sweet grain with a bit of dark grain and some earthy tobacco underlying. Flavor is smooth with sweet grains with a bit of tobacco and earthy grain.

7.5

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

Bottle. Pours a cloudy brown with a small beige head leaving spotty lacing. The aroma is raisin malt and caramel. Thin mouthfeel with a strong caramel and sweet chocolate with nice sweet finish. Easy to drink a very impressive Scotch ale from The Duck-Rabbit.

7.2

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

A pretty solid example of this style. +++ Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a slightly hazy red-caramel color with a medium sized creamy tan head that left a bit of lacing. The aroma was sweet cherry, fig, nut and toffee. The flavor was bitter and sour caramel, fig. tobacco and toffee. The finish was medium length sour and tart cherry and toffee. Moderately full bodied. Solid.

7.2

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle from michael-pollack. Pours really dark ruddy amber with a slight fizzy beige head. Aromas of sweet malt and some floral hop. Toffee almost. Med+ body. Flavor is fairly toffee. It is certainly not very bitter. But the sweet is not excessively sticky. Very nice drink.

7.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

This bottle is around a year old, and it’s drinking well. Sucks you in with sweetness and then bum rushes you with potency (much like the famous strategy used by Scipio Africanus to defeat Hannibal at the Battle of Zama-- yeah, I know some shit.) Lets loose an initial rush of dark, boozy, brogue-filled malts, then a slightly hoppy bitterness, followed by a long alcohol-fueled aftertaste, much akin to a good slug of actual Scotch. I want to dislike this beer because of its initial flaming kick to the balls, (or, as they say in Scotland, a "Merry Christmas.) But the booze only sets you up for the warming goodness ahead. Damn tasty. (1/20/09)

7.3

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Dark fruits, caramel, brown sugar and booze in the nose. Flavor has nice molasses, dark fruits, a bit of booze, toasted malts. Smooth. Enjoyable, but one is enough for me.