Oliphant Swamp Thang Smoked Scottish Ale

The Swamp Thing was a "muck monster" character published by DC comics, first in the magazine House of Secrets in 1971, written by Len Wein and drawn by Bernie Wrightson, later in his own series where he interacted with other DC Universe characters, like The Batman.   He was a human scientist turned into a plant monster in a Louisiana swamp by chemistry and violence, later revealed to be some sort of cosmic elemental when re-imagined by British writer Alan Moore in the mid-80's. That's when I encountered the character, as Moore took American horror / supernatural comics into literary realms they'd never been before. The Alan Moore Swamp Thing run was an incredibly odd and beautiful thing, startling in it's originality, shocking in what it introduced to mainstream comics. It began a trend of sorts, that eventually became an imprint inside DC Comics called Vertigo, home to Sandman, Preacher, and other long-running imaginative titles.

And now, it's even inspired a beer from Oliphant. Only natural to name a beer based on the styles from the land of peat and bogs after the bog monster himself. A smoked Scottish Ale at 8% ABV. This is different from their beer Swamp Thing, which is not smoked, merely Scottish.
Let's open a growler and drink 'er up.

It's clear, reddish-brown, with a nice, light tan-brown head, leaving lace, drifting down, looking good.

Aroma: sweet and peaty, musty, and increasingly smoky. We're down in the depths now, we're keeping in the loam. Nice.

In the mouth, it's a bit more mysterious. And delicious. Smoky, rich, malty, delicious. Small bitterness, good balance, increasingly dry. It's pretty much incredible. Malty sweetness jumps back up once in a while, with some toffee-ish goodness, some caramel, rising up above the smoke, until the smoke takes control again. Alcohol doesn't take control right away, but eventually it makes itself well-known. Me, I'm loving it. It's flat-out delicious. Oh. Em Gee.

On this visit, there were so many interesting ales available that Swamp Thang was not the oddest or most unusual option. It was incredibly hard to choose what to take home, so I picked three, the most growlers or crowlers I've returned with so far. After those three, there were still five more beers I won't get to cover here. I only get out there once a month or so, but I want that to change. It's rough when I'm not in charge of transportation.

It's just one more in a long line of incredible beers from Oliphant. It's a trend that I don't see stopping. Fine by me.