Scottish IPA

[gat1240]

Seems like an oxymoron but Scottish IPA's are being brewed in Scotland by Calendonian (Deuchars IPA 4.4%ABV) and by Belhavens (Twisted Thistle 5.3% IN Europe,6.1% IN US).I've had the Twisted Thistle at some Brit style pub in Monterey and it was quite nice with an interesting ester profile,some pleasant butterscotch diacetyl and a flowery hop finish.Supposedly Cascade and Challenger hops are used in this Twistle Thistle.These beers are a very welcome alternate to the overly alcoholic US IPAs and disprove the theory that you can't have much hop character in Scottish beer.I don't think any commercial brewers of note pay strict attention to BJCP profiles ,in fact they completely ignore them and go overboard on alcohol content as well as hops. I get a headache when drinking american IPA's that these days are going 7 % and up. Like to know if anyone out there has tasted these session style IPA's from Scotland,I'm going to brew one this week.

[BDawg]

I've had the Belhaven Twisted Thistle and enjoyed it very much. I love Scottish/Scotch ales and that's an interesting variation.

THere are plenty of American IPA's out there that are below 7%, though. Not every one is an alcohol bomb. Dogfishhead 60 is really nice and it's 6%. Another is Lagunitas IPA. I agree with you that more is not always better.

I judged Milds in an AHA Club Only Competition last weekend. That was one of the most enjoyable flights I've ever judged. Great time and proof that small beers can be great too.

[brewerTristan]

I've had this beer and I don't see any reason to call it a "Scottish IPA". It's basically an English IPA, which are great beers and I tend to enjoy them, like you, more than their American counterparts.

On that note, I just returned from a trip to England and the only IPA I was able to find on cask there was an "IPA" beer by Greene King coming in at a whopping 3.6%!

[larry78cj7]

I've had the Belhaven Twisted Thistle and enjoyed it very much. I love Scottish/Scotch ales and that's an interesting variation.

+1

[BDawg]

I've had this beer and I don't see any reason to call it a "Scottish IPA". It's basically an English IPA, which are great beers and I tend to enjoy them, like you, more than their American counterparts.

I don't quite agree here. I get quite a bit of that smoky/earthy Scottish/Scotch yeast character out of Twisted Thistle. Compare it side by side to a good English IPA like Sam Smith's or Trafalgar as well as any good Wee Heavy and I think you'll see a much closer comparison to the Wee heavy than the IPA.

But, we all have our perceptions, and that's what's so cool about beer.

[thatguy314]

Edinburgh water is fairly high in sulfate and similar to burton-upon-trent, and was one of the first places to produce successful IPAs before burtonization of water was even properly understood. Palmer's #s give it 2:1 Sulfate:Chloride, but I've seen other books rate it even higher (3-4:1). I'm not surprised to find out that they make some excellent IPAs up there.