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Scottie Karate vs. Old Chub vs. Alba Dog

Recently I did a taste test between a few different types of scotch ale:

  1. A version I hadn’t tried yet – Scottie Karate from Dark Horse Brewery, MI
  2. My favorite version – Old Chub from Oscar Blues Brewery, CO
  3. My version – Alba Dog from Barking Dog Brewery, MN

This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed scotch and scottish ales. Check out this post from last spring where I determine Old Chub as my favorite amongst a handful of contenders.

Though Alba Dog was still in the secondary fermentation stage when I took this sample, I could get a preliminary idea of what I would turn out to be once fermentation was complete and it was carbonated.

Scottie Karate was definitely the driest of the three with the most roast evident. This roastiness brought it too close to a Scottish 80/- in flavor, which isn’t what I was looking for here. Old Chub tasted quite a bit like Alba Dog, though Old Chub was drier, crisper than my version. Hopefully more time in secondary and carbonation will help. On 12/4, Alba Dog was sitting at 1.030 specific gravity. As of 12/10, it had gotten down to 1.025 so it’s definitely continuing to get drier. I’m hopeful Alba Dog will turn out pretty damn amazing.

You can see Scottie Karate on the far left was much less carbonated than Old Chub in the middle (Alba Dog is on the far right).

2 Responses

  1. If you can ever get your hands on any Lake Louie beer, their Scotch all is frickin fantastic. I have never been a huge Scotch Ale fan until I tried their’s! It’s amazing!

    http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/793/9877

    January 17, 2012 at 11:32 am

  2. Pingback: Old Chub Clone Recipe « Barking Dog Beer