How about a new style? "Wee Heavy" is another name for a Scotch Ale and is characterized by being malty, roasty, sweet and high in alcohol. What's not to love? For my first dive into this category of beer, I was lucky enough to try a 2 year old Wee Heavy from Alesmith, which happens to be rated the third best representation of the Wee Heavy style on Beer Advocate. Needless to say, I was pretty excited going into this one.
First of all, a big thanks to Beau for sharing this one. He'd been aging it for 2 years in his wine refrigerator and it aged perfectly.
The beer pours a dark mahogany color with an absolute beast of a head. It rose up as soon as the beer touched the glass and took a long time to settle. It ended up staying at about two fingers above the beer itself and gave the beer a really appealing look.
The smells coming off this beer are mind-blowing. I don't know if I'd ever smelled a beer that smelled this intense. There were huge aromas of freshly baked raisin bread and fruitcake, cinnamon, nutmeg and fig. Even as the beer warmed, the aroma was huge.
I didn't think anything about this beer could impress me more than the smell, but the taste definitely came close. The raisin flavor is huge and dense; like taking a handful of ripe raisins and shoving them into your mouth. There's also a bit of a rum flavor that's pretty delicate along with some spiciness that keeps the raisins from completely running the show. Some brown sugar sweetness also adds a nice touch to this beer. Even though this beer is 10%, the alcohol is well hidden and the only real trace I got of it was in a sort of warming, peaty taste that I found on the back of my tongue long after I had taken a sip. Overall, this beer is an absolute must-try. I don't know if it can top Speedway Stout, but this is without a doubt one of Alesmith's best.
Final Grade: A
This beer was truly awesome, I can't recall a similar tasting beer I've ever had. It was a pleasure to share it with you Walker.
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