ODELL BREWING – “90 SHILLING ALE”

This one found its way out of my brother-in-law’s fridge last week in Denver. “Wow, we don’t have THIS beer in California”, I cajoled. As I understand, it ODELL BREWING’s 90 SHILLING ALE is not only this Fort Collins, CO-based brewer’s flagship ale, it’s their take on the traditional Scottish ale – a style we are learning to love here at HBJ HQ – only lightened up a bit, delivered as a “light amber” rather than a heavy-malt Scottish beer. I found that it’s pretty much just that, and a little boring besides, but still decent enough. It’s highly carbonated, and has a fairly crisp and vaguely caramel-ish bite to it. You might say it’s similar in both style and in its ability to excite to its Fort Collins-based brother FAT TIRE, from NEW BELGIUM. I will say that this brewery probably has the most gorgeous labels in the business right now, and I might buy a few more bottles of ODELL product on that basis alone. But this “light amber” is probably about a 6/10.