I haven't been drinking a lot of beers lately. I find beer, and alcohol in general, really interrupts my sleep at night. Often after when I drink a beer, I'll wake up at like 3:00am and then stay wide awake for a few hours laying in bed, tired but unable to sleep. Eventually I do fall back to sleep a couple of hours later but its usually right before my alarm goes off in the morning. It must be an age thing. I know what you're thinking, "You're not doing it right, you just need to drink more!" Ha, I've heard that one before, many times.
All that being said, you know how it is with beer. Its hard to say no to something so delicious. Sleep be dawned I'm having a beer tonight!
Anyway, last night I did have a beer and I even slept pretty good, right through the night. So for this ##Beersaturday I'm going to share a Scottish inspired ale. Lets check it out.
The photos of the beer above was one I drank a while back but never posted about because I've reviewed that beer before.
Brewery: Highlander Brewing Co
Origin: Toronto ON Canada
Style: Scottish Style Ale
Abv: 5.4%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: The can has a blue plaid color scheme with white and silver accents. There is a distinct white banner and large bold black lettering.
Three thistles designe imagery are its main decoration.
The can definitely has a Scottish vibe, like the name suggests, and fits the brewery's design athetic overall. I recently drank another beer from the brewery and it had a very similar look except with red plaid and Scotish lion imagery. The brewery must be run by a Scottish family, I'm guessing.
I like the design overall.
Color: The beer poured a rich mahogany color with a hearty head of tan colored foam. The head lasted a good amount of time, which is always nice.
Nose: The beer had a malty aroma that was spicy and also had some subtle dark pitted fruit in the background. It smelled sweet and pleasant to me.
Taste: The taste was malty with a good amount of sweetness upfront that was well balanced with a strong punchy bitterness at the end. The bitterness was sharp and long lasting. It tasted spicy but I cant name the spice, maybe nutmeg and cinnamon - I dont know? There was a nice taste of fresh bread that came through as the beer warmed to room temperature as well.
Texture: The texture was soft with small bubbles and a nice smooth mouthfeel underneath. It felt light to medium bodied to me.
Impression: I enjoyed this beer quite a bit. I like strong malty beers and I found this one to be very flavorful with a good balance between its malty sweetness and bitter finish. I like the spicy quality about it with the subtle fruit underneath also. I don't know anything about Scottish beers but this is what I'd imagine them to taste like. I'd buy it again.
As a bonus, here is another beer that I drank recently but never reviewed because I've talked about it before in other posts.
I like anything from Silversmith Brewery. I find their beers to be very flavorful and very fresh tasting. This one is a dark lager. Its not as bold as a stout and in terms of flavor it actually doesn't stray far from a standard lager, despite its color. Its a good beer if you generally drink lagers and want to spice it up a little with something new.
The can design being all black is very cool in my opinion.
They even go so far as to make the aluminum top black. Its a bold design.
