My latest article for The Bulletin focuses on a new beer from Bevel Craft Brewing that’s a bit of a departure from the brewery’s usual hop-forward offerings: Max Weight, a wee heavy. Naturally I touch on the style a little bit before getting into Bevel’s brew.

Wee heavies are characterized by rich, caramel-sweet maltiness in both aroma and flavor, with low to no hop character except to balance the sweetness. The style traces its roots to the strong British ale tradition of the 1700s and 1800s, and it can be considered the Scottish version of an English barleywine.

Bevel Craft Brewing Company recently released Max Weight, its own version of a wee heavy, albeit without the smoke. Bevel is largely known for its hop-forward beers, so I was curious to find out more about how this brew came about.

“This beer is certainly out of our wheelhouse but due to an interesting series of events it was born,” said Bevel’s owner and head brewer Nate Doss via email. “To start a great friend of ours had visited late summer and while visiting Bevel could not stop talking about his new favorite beer style, Scotch Ale. A few weeks later we really needed to decide on a beer for the 2020 Oregon Winter Take-Home Beer Festival run by Silver Moon.”

Doss suggested a Scotch Ale and “after some quick research we settled on the wee heavy.”

Read on for more backstory behind the beer and my review notes. Spoiler: it’s pretty good and a nice version of the style.