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Scottish Ale / 14C

Scottish Export

Unfiltered BJCP Styles Style Profile

Official BJCP guideline sections attached for full style exploration.

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Certified Cicerone® Advanced Cicerone® BJCP Beer Judge Entrance Exam
Source
BJCP 2021 Beer Style Guidelines

Overall Impression

A moderate-strength, malty beer with light caramel, toast, toffee, and fruit flavors. A slight roast dryness offsets the residual sweetness in the finish, with the bitterness perceived only to keep the beer from being cloying.

Aroma

Medium maltiness with caramel and toffee notes, and light toasty and sugary qualities that might be reminiscent of toasted breadcrumbs, ladyfingers, English biscuits, graham crackers, or butterscotch. Light pome fruitiness and light English hop aroma (earthy, floral, orange-citrus, spicy, etc.) allowable.

Appearance

Pale copper to brown. Clear. Low to moderate, creamy off-white.

Flavor

Medium toasty-bready malt with caramel and toffee overtones, finishing with a slightly roasty dryness. A wide range of caramelized sugar and toasted bread type of flavors are possible, using similar descriptors as the aroma. Clean maltiness and fermentation profile. Light esters and hop flavor allowable (similar descriptors as aroma). Sufficient bitterness to not be cloying, but with a malty balance and aftertaste.

Mouthfeel

Medium body. Medium-low to medium carbonation. Maybe be moderately creamy.

Comments

See category introduction for detailed comments. May not seem as bitter as specifications indicate due to higher finishing gravity and residual sweetness. Do not mis-perceive the light roasty dryness as smoke; smoke is not present in these beers. Americanized versions are often greater in strength (similar to American treatment of Irish Red Ales).

Characteristic Ingredients

At its simplest, pale ale malt and colored malt, but can also use sugars, corn, wheat, crystal malts, colorants, and a variety of other grains. Clean yeast. Soft water. No peat-smoked malt.

Style Comparison

See category introduction. Stronger than other Scottish Ales, but with a similar flavor profile. Similar in strength to Best Bitter and Strong Bitter, but with a different flavor profile and balance.

Vital Statistics

IBU
15 - 30
SRM
12 - 20
OG
1.040 - 1.060
FG
1.010 - 1.016
ABV
3.9% - 6%

Commercial Examples

  • Belhaven Scottish Ale
  • Broughton Wee Jock 80 Shilling
  • Caledonian Edinburgh Castle
  • McEwan’s 80/-
  • McEwan’s Export
  • Orkney Dark Island
  • Traquair Bear Ale

Style Attributes

amber-ale-family amber-color british-isles malty standard-strength top-fermented traditional-style

Similar Styles: How to Tell Them Apart

Use these guideline-based sensory contrasts to organize comparative tasting practice.

Scottish Light, Heavy, and Export share essentially the same caramel, toffee, toast, light fruit, restrained hops, malty balance, and slightly roasty finish. Their primary separation is strength, with a secondary color tendency: Light is weakest and often darkest, Heavy is slightly stronger and lighter, and Export carries the most body and alcohol.

Compare with: 14A. Scottish Light; 14B. Scottish Heavy

By aroma

  • Scottish Export has medium caramel-and-toffee malt aroma with toast and sugary biscuit-like notes, similar in kind but generally fuller than the lower-strength styles.
  • Light pome fruit and restrained earthy, floral, orange-citrus, or spicy English hops may appear without changing the malty balance.
  • Its pale copper to brown color resembles Heavy more than the often darker Light.

By taste

  • Scottish Export is the strongest member of the trio, with a medium body and medium-low to medium carbonation supporting the familiar caramel, toffee, and toast.
  • The finish still uses slight roast dryness and sufficient bitterness only to prevent cloying rather than becoming hop-led.
  • When flavor profiles overlap, greater alcohol and palate substance separate Export from Light and Heavy.

Quick tell: The strongest, most substantial version of the shared Scottish malt profile is Scottish Export.

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