Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Black Ale

Back in the day, my dear old dad owned a car repair shop.  This was before the days of environmental consciousness, so Dad used to get rid of old engine oil by pouring it down the nearest storm drain.  Times surely have changed, as I have found the best way to get rid of old engine oil is to pour it down my throat, especially if it’s Harviestouns Brewery’s Old Engine Oil Black Ale.

Old Engine Oil comes in a brown bottle with a handsome ivory, black and silver label.  The bottlecap features Harviestoun’s mascot, a mouse that looks like it has mischief in mind – he’s devilishly cute. There’s 330 ml (11.2 oz for those of us still in the non-metric dark ages) of Engine Oil in said bottle, at 6% ABV.

When I poured out the brew, it was really dark and — well, gloopy. I thought this was sort of a stupid way to describe the stuff, until I looked on the back label and saw the brewery used the same word, too!    At any rate, the beer is syrupy and black and Harviestoun isn’t kidding with the “black” ale label!  This stuff is like an alcoholic black hole- no light passes through this drink.  Not as handsome visually as some other beers I’ve seen but it’s not ugly either. All that black was a bit intimidating and I started to wonder how the ale would taste. Hopefully, not like used 10W-40.

The head on the beer was coffee-colored and very tall and frothy, with lots of bubbles of various sizes in it. It held well and it left behind a pretty ring of lacing. At the start, the carbonation was pretty frisky but settled down fairly rapidly.

I noticed that the bouquet was very noticeable even beyond the glass.  It reminded me of how my kitchen smells when I am proofing yeast prior to baking bread  but as the glass sat, I began to detect notes of roast malts and dark-roasted coffee and chocolate.

First taste – COFFEE.  Good coffee, too! Complex, carefully roasted and brewed coffee. Mouthfeel was slick, but not overly oily. I would describe the quaff as silky. While the mouthfeel was not creamy or thick,  Old Engine definitely posseses richness.  There were tastes of  dark toasted malt.  Almost near the end, the beer was bitter, but appropriately and refreshingly so.  Finally, there was a subtly sweet oatmeal finish on the sides of the mouth.  The beer is a tad sticky on the lips, but it’s a nice sticky, not a sickly, sugary one.

The biggest surprise to me was how well this beer was balanced. There’s a lot of heavy things going on, but the beer is crafted with a good spine, giving it the posture to support all the other components. Definitely more drinkable than I had assumed it would be.

The beer is advertised as an ideal “post-prandial drink” (that means after meal, for those of you preferring less high-falootin’ language), and I wholeheartedly agree that it would be great finish to a meal, just like a good cup of coffee is a nice way to finish out dinner. I would also add that this beer would be a great accompaniment to the meal itself and I’m thinking  sausages or perhaps venison (as a burger). I would suggest a black bean casserole dish or maybe a black bean burger on a dark rye bun as a vegetarian option.

So instead of pouring old engine oil down the drain, try pouring one out and enjoying a glass of Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Black Ale.

PS – I’ve been back in the US for a month now, and this is my first review after being on hiatus for some time. It’s good to be back. Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts on Old Engine Oil!

Kampai!