Gritty's Scottish Ale - 6.3% ABV

Ah Gritty's. I haven't had a Gritty's that I didn't like. Their beers have a distinctively British bent to them and as a hopeless Anglophile, that appeals to me. They don't get too fancy or burn you out with cloying sweetness or overpowering hops. I hate the cliche, but it's good honest beer.

Scottish ales tend to be sweeter, heavier and darker than their southern counterparts. I think this is a reaction to the rough terrain and harsher climes at that latitude. After a day of kilting it up in the highlands, tossing cabers in the moors and smoking peat, you'd want a strong sweet beer and the nearest fireplace too. Granted, this is just what I imagine life in Scotland is like, I've only spent a couple of days in Edinburgh, so I'm hardly an expert. Gritty's Scottish Ale is an "interpretation" of the style, which means that one or more of the characteristics on which beer is judged falls outside the boundaries set by the style. Who cares? The label is pretty inspiring though, I have to say. Who knew that Scottish women were so butch...and had beards. I will say though that this is a good comfort beer. On the lower end of the spectrum in alcohol content typical of this style, you can easily work this into your session rotation without getting thoroughly cranked, unless that's your goal. Delicious and refreshing, I give this beer 8 lifted kilts.
-qrash

Peak Organic Maple Oat Ale 5.2%

Enough with you, Peak. I've had enough of your shit. You screwed me once with your insolent Pomegranate Ale. And for whatever reason, I went back to the well, throwing in a different bucket and expecting a different result.

I am hopelessly stupid to have given you another chance. Maple Oat has one or two good sips in it; the first ones. After that, this beer summons the forces of awfulness to bring forth, slowly, what will become an intolerable sweetness in half a pint's time. By the end of the glass, I am literally making bitter beer face-like contortions that a passerby would mistake for pepper spray-induced asphyxiation, evocative of the erratic, involuntary mimetic muscular response observed when a newborn is slipped a thimble of Genesee to chase the evening nutrition. Screw you Peak.