The second half of the Four Seasons beer purchase goes a little something like this:

Down on the bottom shelf lived a sixpack that caught my eye, not for the design of the carton, but rather for the name. It takes a great sense of humor to name a beer Butt Monkey or Horse Piss. I have not yet run across any of these odd sounding titles until the FS visit. I was eyeing a bottle of Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Style Ale. Oh yeah. Dis be da one. 8.5% ABV but 50 IBUs. With that latter number now rattling around in my tin-cup cranial crater, I wondered if this beer would be too bitter for my tender boyish taste buds.

A couple of doors down resided a sixpack of Butthead Doppelbock. I had thought following a Friday review of Butthead with some Dirty Bastard on Saturday would be a sort of themed review session based on names. Hilarity would surely ensue. But. I was just not ready for another dark beer style just yet. I still went with the first name and brought the Dirty Bastard up to the checkout and plopped down the $9.99 plus tax.

Amid a Saturday night thundershower, I weathered the weather, ran inside for a beer glass and returned to the Manly Garage for some manly imbibement. Yesterday we were Polish, today we’re Scottish (or is it Scotch?) and I began with the first Dirty Bastard.

The beer poured a reddish brown in color with a minimal head. I had to use the old B&D flashlight to get a good view of the carbonation and there was a lot of it. The aroma was that of a nice brown ale, very pleasant.

The first sip filled my mouth with flavor, the malts being the predominant taste and the hops following closely on their tail. A tinge of sweetness at the beginning, a boatload of flavor in the middle and a wood rasp going down. The taste is quite pleasant and has all the earmarks of a good, manly beer. Surprisingly, at 8.5% ABV, there was no alcohol taste. Also surprisingly, with 50 IBUs, the beer didn’t strike me as overly bitter. It was the perfect blend of ingredients that made up this hearty beer.

By the second bottle, the taste really stood out for me. The malts were perfect as well as that little bit of sweetness. Soon the bitterness settled in and my mouth had a party. I felt a slight warmth in my gut and I satisfyingly thought that I had picked a winner this time. I don’t know if it was the blend of this beer or the inuring of my taste buds to the bitterness, but this brew was quite good. Each sip exhibited all the tastes as if in turn, the sweetness on this sip, the maltiness on that sip, and the hoppiness on the next.

This might be the drink of choice during those cold winter days in front of a roaring fire. It’s a beer for whiling away the time at a jigsaw puzzle, the Sudoku from hell or a paint-by-number masterpiece. This is not a football game beer, but rather a beer to have after the classical music concert. Imagine being in a suit and tie and asking for a Dirty Bastard. Yes!

Try this beer. It’s a great taste and a good time for your mouth parts regardless of the season at hand. Pit this brew against Robert the Bruce and decide. They’re both that good.

The SixPackTech ratings for Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Style Ale are:

Taste: A- > Even your teeth will be tickled.
Smoothness: A- > The rasp will make your tonsils silky smooth.
Drinkability: B > At some point you will stop and still have some left over.
Bang for the buck: C+ > It’d be a good deal at 8 bucks.
ABV: 8.5%
Wife’s all-encompassing opinion: (Sip) Oh. Hope this wasn’t too expensive. Dark beers are sooo bitter. (sip) Ugh. The second one is worse than the first. Now I gotta wash my mouth out with chocolate. (Chocolate. The female panacea.)