Oskar Blues Old Chub review

Holy cow! How could I have missed this one? I've been drinking Oskar Blues' craft beers in a can for a few years now and I've yet to post a review of one of their best ales - namely: Old Chub - Scottish Style Ale. I've had a 12-pack in my basement for months and forgot to post about it. I guess when there are lots of the same beer available I tend to put off reviewing it. Well no longer! Here's what I think of one of the original Oskar Blues craft beers from a can.

I had this beer chilling down in the fridge waiting for me to finish mowing the yard tonight. It was early evening, the sun was still up and it was in the upper 80's. After 45 minutes of mowing I had worked up a big sweat. I quickly showered and grabbed a cold can of Old Chub as a refresher. Now normally this is not what I'd call a "lawnmower" beer, but I was thirsty and this was ready and waiting, so I poured it into a nice clean beer glass.

Old Chub is considered a Strong Scottish Ale weighing in at 8.0% ABV. It pours dark but light enough to barely see through with some ruby red edges. The light tan head rose about 2 fingers tall in my Sam Adams beer glass but quickly dissipated. I swirled the beer in the glass and a thin light lacing clung to the glass. Being in a can, the beer was not conditioned in it's container but instead held whatever carbonation could be put into it at canning time. Being a dark and thick beer, I wasn't expecting much carbonation anyway.

Aroma: The aroma on this Scottish ale was rich with malts. Oskar Blues put in over 7 different malts into this recipe including a lot of caramel and chocolate malts. The aroma is simply filled with a sweet smell of dark malts with just a hint of some smoked malt. The smell of this beer has a way of saying "If it's not Scottish, it's crap!" - Mike Myers - SNL. And I guarantee you, this beer is not crap, it's damn good.

Taste: At first sip, the rich thickness of this full bodied beer coats your tongue. It felt creamy smooth. This is no lightweight beer laddie. It has a way of sliding down your throat and spanking you at the same time. You gotta respect this brew in moderation or it will sneak up on you.

Old Chub has a rich sweet malty taste with just a hint of bitterness and smokiness. This beer is a slow sipper and tastes good both cold and as it warms up. If I close my eyes I am slightly reminded of caramel corn but with a distinct alcohol wiff to it. I fell in love with the aroma of this beer.

Overall: I swear, even after taking a quick cool shower after mowing the lawn and then opening up this beer cold, it gave me a bit of sweat from it's heat. But it's the type of heat that I enjoy. This is one of my favorite beers from Oskar Blues. It's certainly not a session brew but it goes down well for a strong ale. Kudos to Dale and Oskar Blues for putting out a great canned craft beer. I wish all beer from a can tasted this good. I'll definitely keep buying this beer in the future and will stock it regularly. It keeps well in the can and you can store it for several months (that is if you can keep from drinking it all too soon).


Related articles:
- Oskar Blues Old Chub inspires a new bread.
- Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale review.
- Oskar Blues Gordon review.
- Cellaring notes on Oskar Blues Ten Fidy.

This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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