Belhaven Scottish Ale | ZE Beer Review

Another import beer review, of a beer that I attempted to review earlier in the month. The earlier review was the bottled version, which was too lightstruck to fairly review.

This is also another review out in the snow, for those interested in seeing me stand in the freezing outdoors.

Zymurgical Explorations grade: B

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• beer
• beer review
• craft beer
• import
• Scottish Ale
• Scotland
• Scottish
• Ale
• top-fermented
• imported beer
• Scotch Ale
• snow
• freezing
• plaid
• lumberjack
• can
• nitro can
• widget
• nitrogen

[elharlock]

The difference between Scotch and Scottish ales isn't helped made clear by brewers these days. Much like with Pale Ales and IPAs, often I find that the Scotch/Scottish category gets blurred because the brewer will label their beer incorrectly, often because of marketing...sometimes beers that started out one style traditionally, eventually evolve into something different years later, but the brewery never changes the name.

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@elharlock Maybe we should just stop using the "Scotch Ale" term altogether and just call that style a Wee Heavy, and that way there'd be less confusion between Scotch Ales and Scottish Ales.

[elharlock]

@TheEndosymbiosis I'd be all for that one. Oh, btw, send me your snail mail when you've got the time. I'd like to send your package out next week if possible. Cheers.

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@ChadzBeerReviews There's at least as much difference between a pale lager and an RIS as there is between an ice cream sundae and a steak.

I've long been tempted to do away with ratings altogether, except insofar as it gives a very general guideline for how I felt about the beer at that moment. All these ratings are subjective and relative by definition -- the description of the beer much more solid.

To not consider style is to throw away a lot of info that you have about the beer.

[ChadzBeerReviews]

@TheEndosymbiosis that's an apples & oranges argument. Of course you wouldn't judge those things by the same standards because they're so dissimiliar. But beer is beer and I believe there can be a beer brewed in any style that's a fantastic beer in and of itself. I've had fantastic lagers and I've had Russian imperial stouts that sucked as beers, not as examples of their styles.

If you're going to grade on style you should give two grades

"for a lager this is an A-, but for beer it's a C+"

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@ChadzBeerReviews That's not a curve. That's grading based on what the person making the beer intended. Yes, style can be constraining and style nazis can be dicks, but they exist for a reason.

You wouldn't rate an ice cream sundae by the same standards you'd rate a steak dinner, would you?

[ChadzBeerReviews]

@TheEndosymbiosis see that's actually my point. You're grading on a curve. that's being relativist. That's why I hate the way rate beer grades beers because it's all on a relative scale. If everything sucks and one beer is just slightly better, but better than all of them it still receives a 100. That's absurd. Why not rate on an absolute scale? Styles are just arbitrary definitions of generalities. If a beer sucks, it sucks. If it's good it's good. Let's not brag about being the tallest midget

[monkeycaveman]

@monkeycaveman Man if I had a nickel for every mistake I made on camera...lol...just watch my HTD Adam where I completely screw up and say they don't make a pale ale...

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@realaleguide Yeah, probably not quite as bad as Wales, though. It was about 28F when I shot this around 3:00 PM.

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@Tantrum777 Not as bad as when I did the Skullsplitter review. It was in the upper twenties, and I have a nice fleece-lined jacket and a hat. My hands were cold, though, since I didn't want to fight with gloves while opening the can.

Glad you like the review. Cheers!

[TheEndosymbiosis]

@ChadzBeerReviews Style can be important in terms of informing the consumer what kind of beer you're trying to make, but of course it's possible to get a little hung up on style guidelines. If I'd reviewed this as a Scotch Ale as opposed to a Scottish Ale my rating would have been significantly lower.