Claymore pours a dark chocolate brown, with a thin brown head. Very little smokiness, but quite a bit of the "whiskey" heat. Toffee, vanilla, and a hint of raisin & fig. I'm becoming quite a fan of this style, although the higher ABV limits my consumption. I do have this image of myself in a smoking jacket and a pipe, sitting before a roaring fire, drinking a few of these from a brandy snifter. Ah...lord of all I survey.
Scotch Ale was first used as a designation for strong ales exported from Edinburgh in the 18th century. The term has become popular in the USA, where strong ales which may be available in Scotland under a different name are sold in America as "Scotch Ale", for example, Caledonian's Edinburgh Strong Ale or Edinburgh Tattoo, is sold in the USA as Edinburgh Scotch Ale. As with other examples of strong ales, such as Barley wine, these beers tend toward sweetness and a full body.
Scotch Ale or Whiskey Ale is a designation used by brewers in France and Belgium for peat-smoked malt flavoured beers. Even though the malt used by distillers in Scotland is no longer dried by peat burning, some peat smoke flavour is added during malting by an additional process.
Scotch Ale is sometimes conflated with the term "Wee Heavy", as both are used to describe a strong beer. Examples of beers brewed in the USA under the name Wee Heavy tend to be 7% abv and higher, while Scottish-brewed examples, such as Belhaven's Wee Heavy, can be found between 5.5% and 6.5% abv. McEwan's Scotch Ale is also 8% abv. In North East England, "Best Scotch" refers to a beer similar to Mild Ale but with a drier, more burnt palate.
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