A Lovely Bastard

After a couple of lager reviews, its time to head back to the wonderful world of ales!

Brew Details: Tonight I popped a bottle of Founders Dirty Bastard, which is their Scotch Ale.

Serving Conditions: This bottle was straight from my beer fridge which kept it at a moderate 50 degrees. I drank this from a standard pint glass.

Appearance: The color is a deep, dark ruby red that almost appears brown. The head was a little dark and slightly larger than medium.

Scent: This smells of sweet, sweet malt with what seems to be a little molasses way in the background. Hops? What hops? And for that matter, where is the scent of booze? For a drink that runs at 8.5% alcohol, I can't believe how little alcohol I can smell.

Taste: The taste is sweet and very smooth. I taste a little caramel at the beginning, with sweet malt throughout. Finally at the end there is some roasted malt with a tiny bit of bitterness. I can't tell if that's the hops finally showing up or just the roasted malt telling the hops that they aren't welcome here.

Mouthfeel: This Scotch Ale is a little syrupy and has a medium amount of carbonation.

Drinkability: This certainly isn't a session beer, but I could easily go through two... or maybe even three of these in a sitting. The alcohol content is definitely the limiting factor.

Notes: As this brew warmed, the flavor and finish seemed about the same, but the "booziness" really came to the front. This is one of my favorite Scotch Ales. While it is on the heavier and thicker side, its not nearly as heavy and syrupy as Belhaven's Wee Heavy making it a very nice example of a Scotch Ale and one that I highly recommend.

I give it a 8.5 out of 10 as it is very worthy of keeping on hand.

I think its time to break out my bottle of Backwoods Bastard and see what this tastes like after its been aged in oak barrels.