PDubyah: Beer - #310 - Renaissance - Stonecutter Scotch Ale

Monday, February 24, 2014

Beer - #310 - Renaissance - Stonecutter Scotch Ale

A beer that was a gift - Renaissance - Stonecutter Scotch Ale

Brewed by Renaissance Brewing in the style of a Scotch Ale and they live in Blenheim, New Zealand

This is the big, hearty ’red wine’ of our range. Nine malts are blended to produce layers of caramel, coffee, liquorice, chocolate and roasty flavours and these are balanced by a tart, raisiny fruitiness that gradually gives way to a lingering dry finish. Rich, full bodied. warming and moreish. Stonecutter pairs well with venison, roast beef or lamb, or the heartiest casseroles and stews. For dessert try with a creme brulee or, of course, Scottish shortbread.

We use nine malts blended together to produce layers of caramel, toffee, liquorice, chocolate and roasty flavours. These layers are balanced by a tart, raisiny fruitiness that gradually gives way to give this dark beer a lingering dry finish.

Rich, full bodied, warming and moreish.

Multi award winning Stonecutter Scotch Ale is the big, hearty, ‘red wine’ of our range. The Scotch Ale style is believed to have originated in Edinburgh in the 18th century and is colloquially known as "wee heavy" due to its higher strength than its paler siblings. We use nine malts blended together to produce layers of caramel, toffee, liquorice, chocolate and roasty flavours. These layers are balanced by a tart, raisiny fruitiness that gradually gives way to give this dark beer a lingering dry finish.

210 calories a serve, 7% ABV and 2.8 standard drinks, in a 500 ml bottle. Get in!

Heavy yeasty bready aroma on opening. Pours a lovely chestnut brown with a smallish off white head that seems firm and persistent.

More fruits and raisin in the aroma than indicated from the opening.

This is a full beer, by which it has a nice set of tastes from the tip the finish. There's a nice bitterness and a nice amount of caramels throughout this.

The raisin fruits play their supporting part too, adding to the whole enjoyment of this.

But, and isn't there always a but? I'm not actually sure that this is as full as I think it is, you can mistake a better beer this time than the last beer you had as being a step change.

This is really easy drinking, there are no hard edges to trip you up, and there is no unusual flavour or notes to distract you.

Pdubyah-o-meter rating this is 7, making it better than good. I could have started the afternoon with this and been happy to keep spending the afternoon with it. But let me not get carried away. I'm not in love.

Yes I'd session on this (drink this a bit), but it could end up cloying and full of the caramels and sugars which would make it heavy weather after a couple.

Musically, because this is important. I can't help but like the Smiths and Morrissey - this one is Everyday Is Like Sunday. MrsPdubyah and me went to see him in concert recently, frankly he's a bit of a dick. Aside though I do like the musics

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27yyCVC1UvI&w=560&h=315]

SCOTCH ALE

Scotch Ale was the name given to a strong pale ale from Edinburgh in the 19th century. This was typical of the strong pale ales brewed in Britain at that time - mainly pale barley malt and moderate hopping, and were not that stylistically different to English Strong Ales or Barley Wines. The name however became regionalised so that a strong pale ale from Scotland became known as a Scotch Ale or Wee Heavy. Beers using the designation Scotch Ale are popular in the USA where most examples are brewed locally. 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 Belhavens Wee Heavy, are typically between 5.5% and 6.5% abv.