Granville Island offers solid Scottish ale
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2016 (3708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
@Saturday Tab Brown=[C]
For this week’s edition of First Draught, I’m taking on Auld Skool Scottish Ale by Vancouver’s Granville Island Brewing (Molson).
Aside from Big Rock and Innis & Gunn, Scottish ales aren’t that common in Manitoba. In the case of Innis & Gunn, their beer is more about the barrel the beer is being brewed in, rather than being a Scottish ale.
I tend to stay away from Granville Island’s typical offerings in regular 341ml bottles because I just find them too watered down, with a manufactured taste.
On the flip side, Granville’s 650ml bomber bottles have been a real treat over the years, with styles ranging from a Belgian-style saison to stouts and hoppy dark ales.
I’m glad that the brewery is continuing to experiment, especially with British Columbia having one of the largest beer scenes in Canada now — there are just too many breweries to check out!
Auld Skool is rated at 6.25 per cent ABV, making it a bit lower in alcohol content than most Scottish ales I’ve tasted in the past. It has a whopping 20 IBU, meaning that the hop bitterness in this beer won’t be overbearing or anywhere near the “time to get out the Tums” stage.
Auld Skool pours a heavy and cloudy copper-brown, with half a finger of cookie dough beige foam on top that’s just staying still — not much carbonation taking place.
The aroma is mildly nutty, with notes of fresh baked biscuits, toffee, raisins and an earthy whiff of peat from the roasted malt used in the beer.
For the taste, I get the earthy peat notes appearing immediately as I’m sipping on this. Following the peat, there’s a mild amount of toffee that just briefly hits near the middle of my tongue, leaving only lingering memories of other Scottish ales of my past.
It’s fairly nutty and the hop presence is minor — just a hint of a light, bitter metallic aftertaste. I’m liking that this is a fairly sweet, earthy Scottish ale, but I expected a bit more toffee in this Auld Skool party.
I find that this is a good beer for people who like a mild brown ale, nothing as dark and heavy as a Fort Garry Dark or a stout.
In most of my favourite Scottish ales, I usually get more bite out of the toffee and even a hint of raisins and other dried dark fruits in the taste.
Scottish ales are hard to find, so I recommend taste testing this with a bottle of Innis & Gunn Original or a Big Rock Scottish-style Wee Heavy Ale. You can find Auld Skool at the Corral Centre and 10th and Victoria Liquor Marts in Brandon for $6.10 per 650ml bottle.
• Pint Rating: 3 pints out or 5
Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as he believes that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if it’s truly good or bad.
» BeerCrank.ca.