Cup O Kyndness

Well for this one I'm reviewing one of those weird hybrid beers that some people see and go huh? Especially since you see this one brewed by a fair amount of Belgian brewers as well though. This is Ommegang's shot at making a Belgian-style Scotch ale. For those who are not familiar Ommegang is one of those American breweries that make strong specialty Belgian style brews, typically named as one of our extreme breweries on par with Lost Coast, and Dogfish. Now for the brew, Belgians typically brew their own specialized type brew each one kind of having an individual spin on a wide variety of styles with their own specialized yeast. Now besides IPAs being brewed recently in a Belgian style, there was only one foreign style ale that the Belgians would tackle, that being a Scotch style ale. The bottle on this one gives you a brief history lesson, basically Scottish troops in WWI missed their maltier beverages so the Belgians incorporated this style into their fold with the major difference being the use of the Belgian yeast. One of my favorites of these is the one brewed by Bison, this one by Ommegang is a different taste though. It has a wonderful sweet smell to it. The smell accompanies the taste in that it is not as malty as a lot of other scotch style ales typically are. This one leans more toward the sweet, toffee flavor kind of side, with a slight floral aftertaste that comes from the addition of the heather added to the beverage. Other than that the brew has a slight hint of the taste typical to brews made with a belgian yeast, that has a bit of a sharper bite to the brew. If it was food think of the difference between cheddar, and sharp cheddar, and for those of you who don't like cheese, besides the fact that you may not be human I do not have a comparison readily available. Of course being made in a Belgian style this scotch type brew has a higher amount of carbonation. It's also not as strong as a fair amount of scotch ales as it only weighs in at about 6.6%alc. Think of a scotch style ale with a bubbly make up of a brew closer to like champagne, or Belgian Tripel style ale. Is it worth with it? Well like I said I like the maltier flavor, over subtle sweetness so I would go for something closer to the one made by Bison. For everyone else this may be the kind of brew your looking for. It also makes the nice bridge over to the wacky world of Scotch ales from Belgians. I purchased this one from 99 Bottles, but I've also seen it at the Beer Junction so I'll go out on a limb and say it's pretty readily available. I definitley fully encourage people to try this ale that bridges the cultural divide that is Belgium, and Scotland.