Scottish Ale

Scottish ales are malt territory: caramel, toffee and toast, with a little gentle fruitiness, restrained hop character and colours ranging from copper to brown. They come as a family of three, Light, Heavy and Export, rising in strength and richness of character from one to the next. Despite the whisky association, peated malt is not traditional in Scottish ale: peat smoke belongs to the distilleries, not the breweries. The real challenge is finding them; even in Scotland these ales take some looking for.