Name: Claymore Scotch Ale
Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Co.
Style: Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale
ABV: 7.7
Final Grade: A
Score: 46

Colorado has more than 100 breweries (118 as of 2010), and yet, the one I hear about the most is Great Divide.

This Denver brewery is well known for its Yeti, a Russian Imperial Stout. But after having tried the Claymore Scotch Ale, I’d have to figure that this malt-bomb would give any beer on the menu a run for its money.

This week, I put my jewels on the table and volunteered to submit a scoresheet to be critiqued by the group.

Name: Jeremy Hebert
Brewery: The Norwich Inn
Hebert recently stepped into some big shoes left by Patrick Dakin, his predecessor at the Norwich Inn, where Hebert took over as head brewer late last year. The 45-year-old resident of Sharon, Vt., is a refugee from the craft beer comeuppance of the 90s, working at the now-defunct Golden Dome Brewing Company in Montpelier.

Hebert’s taste for British-style ales and, in particular, Scottish beers has made him an excellent fit at The Norwich Inn. This little brewpub has built a well-earned reputation for producing authentic English and Scottish beers — nothing over the top or that caters to extreme taste — just well-made stuff.

Hebert took a little time out of his busy schedule to talk about the first beer he ever liked, what he rocks out to on a brew day, and go on the record as stating he’s no hop head. His responses are below:

I sampled this one the same day that I bottled my homebrewed take on a Scotch Ale. Oh, how I wish I could have produced something like Belhaven’s Wee Heavy.

“There’s a special rung in hell for people who waste good scotch. And seeing as I might be rapping on the door momentarily… [he drinks the scotch]…I must say, damned good stuff sir.”
– Lt. Archie Hicox, Inglourious Basterds

Scotch lovers can be so precious. A swirl, a sniff… the leathery bouquet… and then squint and sigh as the liquor slides over the tongue.

This is more an admission than a criticism, as I’m among these precious people. But how many of them share the same appreciation for Scotch ales? I haven’t come across any solid research on the subject, but I’d venture that it’s not nearly as many as you’d think.

Scotch ales — otherwise known as Wee Heavy — are a rare breed on the shelves of your average grocery store. A decent craft beer store may have a few Scottish beers available — Belhaven 60/-, McEwan’s 60/-, — but try and find one with the full-bodied, rich malt, touch of smoke and big alcohol of a Scotch ale. The selection gets noticeably thinner.

Oh, but they are soooo worth seeking out.

Scenes like this inspired me to take it a little easy and brew a session beer.

It’s been a while since I made anything less than a 6% abv, and though I’d been hankering for a bourbon stout, I found another recipe that seemed just right for the New England fall. It goes as follows:
5 lb. pale malt
.5 lb. Munich malt
5.5 oz. roasted barley
5 oz. smoked malt
1 oz. Fuggle hop pellets (60 min.)
Scottish ale yeast
Mash grains in 7 quarts of water at 170-degrees F. Hold at 152-degrees for 1 hour. Mash …

The impromptu beer purchase — make that, any impromptu purchase — is a rare thing for me. But Smuttynose is a safe chance to take, and so on a trip to the grocery store today for bagels and … something else … I grabbed a 22 oz. of the Scotch Ale that’s part of the brewery’s “Big Beer Series.”
As expected, it was well worth the $3.99 I paid for it. We were planning to make stuffed cabbage that afternoon and needed something smooth with a bit of extra octane if …