Harpoon 100-Barrel Series: Steve Stewart's Firth of Forth Ale
I am always curious when Harpoon releases its 100-Barrel Series offerings, so when I went into the beer store and saw its 22nd selection on the shelf, my mind was made. This offering is called Steve Stewart’s Firth of Forth Ale, and is a dark scotch-style ale.
The label on the bottle touts the ale’s statistics: 5.4% ABV, 28 IBU’s, 13.2 Original Gravity. That’s for all the beer nerds, like myself. The literature speaks of a marriage between Scottish malts and American hops. I drool.
The ale pours a medium to dark filtered brown. The head on this ale explodes into a voluminous light brown cloud, and is fluffy and resilient. As I smell the ale, I notice some smells reminiscent of fresh earth mingling with toasty malt characteristics. As I sip this ale, the first thing that I notice is how smooth and creamy the mouth-feel is. There are an abundance of flavors at play, from distinct chocolate and coffee flavors to an underlying toasty malt body with hints of caramelized sugar. This medium body of this ale finishes oily with a slightly coppery phenol finish.
This 22 oz. bottle cost $6.45, and is only available in limited supply. I really enjoyed this offering, as it was smooth and mellow, yet very intriguing. I’ve been drinking mostly IPAs recently, so this Scottish brown ale was a nice change of pace. I can see drinking several of these over a long afternoon on a rainy day, and being perfectly content with the world. Go get a bottle before it’s gone! GO NOW!