Summit Brewing Company of St. Paul gave a sneak preview last night of the second beer in their Unchained Series. For those who don’t know, the Unchained Series beers are intended to showcase the skills of individual brewers at Summit. The brewer has complete control, shepherding their beer through the process from recipe formulation to packaging. These beers aren’t the result of the brewmaster’s imagination, they are created by the folks who actually make the beer.

The second beer in the series, a Scottish 90/- brewed with heather, is the creation of brewer Eric Blomquist. The odd symbol in the name of this beer is the old sign for shilling. Back in the day in the UK, beers were taxed based upon their strength. In the case of Scottish beers there were 60/-, 70/-, 80/- and 90/-, beers. These tax designations eventually just stuck as the colloquial name for each beer. Scottish ales evolved as malt centered beers featuring sweet caramel flavors and hints of roast. This was in part because hops cannot be grown in Scotland. It is also due to the fact that the English taxed the hops that Scottish brewers imported. Fewer hops meant less expense to the brewer and sweeter more malt focused beers. The heather in this beer is a traditional ingredient for Scottish ales. In the days before hops became widely used, brewers used a number of herbs, heather among them, to bitter their beers.

Here’s my notes:

90/- Scottish Style Ale
Summit Brewing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
Style: Strong Scotch Ale
Serving Style: 12 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Toasted pumpernickel bread with caramel sweetness. Light coffee roast. Notes of brown sugar and raisins.

Appearance: Moderate and creamy off-white head with good persistence. Maintained a film on the surface. Deep ruby/mahogany and crystal clear.

Flavor: Slanted to sweet malt, but balanced with more bitterness than I expected. The hops have a spicy/herbal character that melds with and accentuates the intense herbal flavors of the heather. Together with the sweet caramel and brown sugar malt it reminds me of spiced molasses cookies or maybe the horehound stick candy that I ate as a kid. The same toasted bread flavors from the aroma carry over to the flavor. Hints of dark fruits and orange. The finish is crisp and lingers on roasted malt and molasses.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with medium carbonation. Smooth creaminess.

Overall Impression: The folks at Summit are stepping up their game with these Unchained Series Beers. Like the Kölsch, this one is really well made. The bready, roasted, and caramel malt flavors are all well articulated. It’s on the sweet side, as it should be for the style, but the level of bittering balances it nicely, keeping it from becoming cloying. The heather gives it additional layers of interest. Not overly strong, but still works as a snifter sipper.