Scotch Ale – The Tap Takeover

Beer Review: Broken Goblet’s All Goblets Have Spirits

Name: All Goblets Have Spirits
Brewing Company: Broken Goblet Brewing Company
Location: Bensalem Township, PA
Style: Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy
ABV: 10.3%

A malty, flavorful beer whose strong maple syrup presence is wonderfully balanced.

The floaties are slices of apples, a nice touch from the fine folks of Broken Goblet.

From Broken Goblet’s landing page for the beer:

Scotch Ale with maple syrup and gala apples.

Scotch Ales are not the most prevalent style of beer in the American beer landscape. Sure a decent number of breweries have at last one in their portfolio, but they aren’t the juicy hop bombs which often comprise at least half to two thirds of a bar or taproom’s beer list. The style is very malty, often sweet, and can be in the 7 to 10 ABV% range. They are somewhere on the Barleywine and Imperial Stout spectrum of ales, minus the hoppiness. Scotch Ales lend themselves to some flavor adjuncts or barrel aging, too. In the case of Broken Goblet’s All Goblets Have Spirits, their Scotch ale is brewed with Maple Syrup and Gala Apples. If that doesn’t say fall beer, I don’t know what does.

As has become tradition around my birthday in November, my wife takes me and a few people on a tour of multiple breweries. This year’s tour featured breweries along the Bucks County Ale Trail, which is pretty convenient since I’m about a half hour from the PA border and included a stop at Broken Goblet. I usually don’t go for the prevalent styles on these brewery visits, styles like IPAs and Stouts, so seeing this beer up on the menu board for the day was very pleasing as I enjoy a good Scotch Ale.

However, I wasn’t prepared for what this beer turned out to be.

I was confused when the beer was handed to me, little objects were floating in the beer. The aroma; however, was delicious. A glorious smell with hints of maple that I could have spent an hour breathing in. I realized those little objects were slivers of apple, which per the above description, are part of the brewing process along with maple syrup. I wasn’t initially aware that the apples and maple syrup were used in the brewing process, the menu board doesn’t indicate that to be the case. It was an extremely pleasant surprise, I must admit.

It is really difficult to get past the potency of the maple in this beer, but that isn’t a bad thing. I still get the malts that gives the Scotch Ale it’s primary flavors, however. I’ve had a few beers that used maple syrup as part of the brewing process, some have been good, a few have turned sour (CBS), but in almost all of them the maple is omnipresent and a fine complement to the beer itself. There’s a strong hint of caramel to this beer, along with perhaps toffee too. I’m reminded of Sierra Nevada’s Maple Scotch Ale, but a little boozier. I don’t know if I’d get the apple flavor as much as I would if there weren’t pieces of apples floating at the top of the beer. I really liked the touch of the apples in the beer. This from a guy who doesn’t appreciate an orange being added to my glass of Hefeweizen or Witbier.

All Goblets Have Spirits is a very interesting, fun beer. The crispness of the apples likely helps to balance the very potent sweetness from the maple syrup and caramelly malts for the beer. This is a beer to enjoy on a cold fall or winter night by the fire. A beer to consider and enjoy while perhaps watching a movie or curling up with a great immersive novel.

We visited five breweries (and had dinner at a favorate restaurant with a fantastic tap list) that day and All Goblets Have Spirits was, unquestionably my favorite beer of the day. It is the kind of beer to experience. It was also pleased to run into the guys behind Breweries in PA during our visit. We chatted only briefly, I think they were partaking in a tour of the Bucks County Ale Trail, too.

Summing it up, Broken Goblet is a fun brewery and All Goblets Have Spirits is a very good beer.

Highly recommended, link to 4.25 bottle-cap Untappd check in.

Untapped badges earned with this beer:

Wee Bit of the Scotch (Level 4)

Whether it’s a Scotch Ale, Scottish Ale, or a traditional Wee Heavy, don your kilt and prepare yourself for a wee bit of Scotch.

Beer Review: Orkney Brewery’s Skull Splitter

Beer Review

Name: Skull Splitter
Brewing Company: The Orkney Brewery
Location: Orkney Islands, Scotland
Style: Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy
ABV: 8.5%

From the beer’s description on Orkney Brewery’s Web site:

One of our strongest beers, named after Thorfinn Einarsson the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney

A rich fruity wine-like complexity on the palate includes fresh and dried fruits, warm exotic spice and light summer citrus fruits. Sophisticated, satiny smooth with a deceptively light character.

This is the second Scotch Ale I’ve reviewed here at the Tap Takeover and the first beer from the land which lends the name to the style, Scotland. This is as traditional as a Scotch Ale can get and after seeing a few reviews on untappd and the beer guy at my bottle shop give this big thumbs-up when he caught me glancing at the bottle, I knew I wanted to give it a try. One day a couple of weeks ago, my wife stopped at one of the many bottle shops on her way home from work and surprised me with a four pack of this one. My wife certainly knows what I like. She’s also a self-admitted sucker for a great label and beer name, as she said, “How do I not get you a beer named Skull Splitter?”

On to the beer…malty aromas come out of the bottle as the brownish/copper ale fills the glass. The beer looks a little cloudy and has a very pleasing aroma once it fills the pint glass and breathes. The beer starts strong and has a nice feel as you absorb the complex flavors.

Those complex flavors include hints of some kind of fruits, I’ve seen people mention figs and maybe plums or even raisins. I can’t disagree with any of those, I just know I like the taste. There’s a nice caramel/malty finish to the beer that is extremely tasty and smooth. As the flavors settle then dissipate, it really makes you want to take another three or four sips. Like some of the maltier ales the hop presence doesn’t really assert itself, which is fine by me. Rather that caramel sweetness finishes with a slight tang/spice at the end that makes for a very nicely balanced beer.

The easy drinking taste of the beer; however, is in contrast to the relatively high ABV. This isn’t a beer you should throw back at 3 or 4 an hour. Maybe…maybe 2 an hour. The complex flavors really benefit from slowly drinking it, letting all the complexities roll around your palate.

The beer reminds me a bit of some of the great Dubbels I’ve had over the years for the malt and smoothness, but Skull Splitter‘s caramel flavors and hints of brown sugar set this one apart into a glass of its own pouring.

A perfect beer for a cool fall evening, one to enjoy after the meal is complete almost as a dessert beer but one that also might pair well with a really earthy meal of steak and mashed potatoes or a hearty stew. You know, a meal like Thorfinn Einarsson, the surly Viking leaning on the axe on the label, would enjoy.

Recommended, link to Untappd 4-star rating.

Wee Bit of the Scotch (Level 2)

Whether it’s a Scotch Ale, Scottish Ale, or a traditional Wee Heavy, don your kilt and prepare yourself for a wee bit of Scotch.

Beer Review: Founders Backwoods Bastard (2016)

Draught Diversion

Name: Backwoods Bastard
Brewing Company: Founders Brewing
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Style: Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy
ABV: 11.2% (2016, but it ranges from year to year)

From the beer’s description on Founders’ Web site:

Expect lovely, warm smells of single malt scotch, oaky bourbon barrels, smoke, sweet caramel and roasted malts, a bit of earthy spice and a scintilla of dark fruit. It’s a kick-back sipper made to excite the palate.

Scotch Ales are one of the beer styles less consumed than say, an IPA or a Stout. The style has been around since the 19^th Century and is known for being malty, dark brownish in color, with a sweet almost caramel-like flavor profile. It is also a style that I’ve come to really enjoy over the past year or so as I’ve had a small handful of well-made beers in this style.

One of Founders’ year-round styles is their Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale. The style has proven popular enough that Founders puts the beer out in 12-packs of cans. What they’ve done here with Backwoods Bastard is, in a word, sublime. Taking that already malty beer and aging in bourbon barrels weaves a magical spell over a beer that has an existing taste profile that is quite tasty and well regarded. As much as stouts benefit from the barrel aging (see Founders Kentucky Breakfast stout), the Scotch style ale may benefit even more as the profile of a Scotch ale may be more complementary to the refinement in bourbon barrels.

This was, I think, the second major Barrel Aged release from Founders when it was first released in 2007. They have since implemented a year-long “Barrel Series” of 6 beers which began in early 2017 with Frootwood (a Cherry/Fruit beer aged in barrels that at one time held both maple syrup and bourbon). When it releases in November 2017, the four packs of Backwood Bastard will be joined by a 22oz bomb.

Beer connoisseurs talk about the “nose” of the beer, which is basically the aroma. I can’t recall having a beer with such a wonderful nose to the point where I’d almost want to bask in the aroma and not drink the beer. That may be a bit of a stretch, but breathing in the complex aroma, a blend of caramel and bourbon, produced by Backwoods Bastard is a sensual experience that hints at the deliciousness of the beer itself. For as much attention as Founders receives for Kentucky Breakfast Stout (and it is well-deserved attention), Backwoods Bastard is a beer equal in complexity and taste.

I split a four pack with a friend/co-worker as we were both unsure what to expect from the beer. After consuming both bottles (a few months apart), this beer is quite firmly in my top 10 of all time. I had one in November shortly after getting the beer and I let the other one sit until April of this past year, which I think made the beer even better. When I get the four pack in November, I think I’ll let one of the beers age for at least a year to see how that changes the taste. In November, I’ll be getting at least a four-pack of my own.

Highly Recommended, link to Untappd 5-star rating.