Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale

It seems that "Imperial" is becoming the buzzword of the craft beer industry these days. I posted about an Imperial ESB a short time ago, and now I have an Imperial Nut Brown Ale from Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, CO. This is a high octane version of their Maple Brown Ale, which I reviewed in an earlier post. This beer poured a deep brown with no discernible head. Mouthfeel is medium, and the first sip is emphasized by the higher alcohol level - 9%. This is a sweet malty beer, with a woody character from the maple. It has a lingering alcohol finish. I enjoy these Imperial ales, as I tend to brew higher alcohol beers that push the limits as well.

Lost Coast Winterbraun Ale

While perusing the beer aisle at Whole Foods, I discovered this bottle of Lost Coast Brewery's Winterbraun Ale. I like brown ales, and I like winter beers, so it was a natural. It poured a deep brownish red with a small beige head. The aroma was toffee, and chocolate. This brown is richer, spicier, and more chocolaty than their Downtown Brown, which I also enjoyed. It finishes with a nice lingering bitterness. This was an excellent selection! Once again, Lost Coast has made a great beer.

He'Brew - The Chosen Beer - Genesis Ale

Tonight I tasted another He'Brew beer from Shmaltz Brewing. This beer is their "Genesis Ale" and is described as a Light Brown Ale. It's a pretty accurate description, as it poured a deep amber with a light colored head. It's kind of a cross between a brown ale and a pale or amber ale. It's a little maltier than a traditional APA, and hoppier than a brown. It's actually similar to the Saranac I had last night. There was one thing that troubled me about this beer. It had a sour metallic flavor that was subtle, but a little distracting. I have to say that I have liked the other beers from Shmaltz better than this one.

Saranac India Style Brown Ale

Tonight's beer is from Saranac's "12 Beers of Winter", which I picked up this past weekend. It's a brand new brew for F.X. Matt - India Style Brown Ale. I was looking forward to this cross between a brown ale and an IPA. It poured a medium brown color with a small cream-colored head. The head didn't last long, but did leave a nice lacing on the glass. Unfortunately, the brew was not as inspiring as I had hoped. It lacked the sweetness of a brown ale, and wasn't nearly as hoppy as I was anticipating. Admittedly, I am a hop-head, so it's impossible to put too much hop character in a beer. I think the folks at Saranac were a bit too cautious on this beer. I would have liked to see them emphasize the sweet nutty character of a brown ale, as well as the overt hoppiness of the IPA. I'm just going to have to brew my own version of this beer, once I have a fermenter free again.

Leinenkugel Fireside Nut Brown Ale

I was in Publix this afternoon, getting some last minute 'stuff' for Turkey day and saw this beer in the cooler. Leinenkugel is not very well-represented in Florida - usually I can only find their wheat beers - so this was a pleasant surprise. I don't buy many six-packs, but since this was a seasonal beer, and I had never seen it before, I thought "Why not?". The description on the six-pack holder also intrigued me (which is what it's supposed to do). The beer poured a chestnut brown with a small whitish head. The aroma was of milk chocolate and malt, while the flavor was very unique. It tasted of milk chocolate and hazelnuts and was pleasantly sweet. My wife tasted it, to help me identify another flavor I was having trouble defining, and said "this tastes like Dr. Pepper". After another sip, I realized she was right. All in all, this was a very pleasant, easy-drinking beer that I don't mind having a six-pack of. It is modest in alcohol, so it could easily be a session beer. I hope that finding this new variety is a sign that I'll be able to find some more Leinie's in Florida in the future.

Lost Coast Downtown Brown Ale

It's been a while since I've had any beers from Lost Coast Brewery in Eureka, CA, so tonight I selected their Downtown Brown Ale. I have to confess that the first thing that caught my eye was the crazy artwork on the bottle. In fact, most of their beers have super bright colorful and unique labels. Downtown Brown is a very solid brown ale. It poured a medium-dark brown with a pencil thin head. It tasted of sweet malt, slightly nutty, and with a coffee-like bitterness. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's still very enjoyable. Lost Coast makes a number of other good beers, such as their Indica IPA.

Tommyknocker Maple Nut Brown Ale

I'm a big fan of maple syrup, so I couldn't resist this beer when I saw it on the store shelf. Brewed by Tommyknocker Brewery in Colorado, it's a Maple Nut Brown Ale. It poured a typical brown ale color with a miniscule white head. It had a very subtle maple flavor, or else I imagined it. It was a bit roasty, slightly sweet, and had a finish bitter enough to offset the sweet malt. I like brown ales, and this one was pretty good. Just a little more maple flavor would have made it perfect.

Saranac Brown Ale from F.X. Matt Brewing

Well, my sister's headed back to NY after a week in Florida enjoying our tropical storm. Yep, Fay did a number on their vacation. I made out pretty well because they brought me a 12 pack of assorted Saranac beers, and another assortment from Otter Creek. Along with my homebrew, the extra beer from my surprise birthday party, and the beer I already had in the fridge, the old beer fridge is bursting at its seams. To take a little of the pressure off, I tried Saranac's Brown Ale tonight. It poured a medium brown, with a fluffy beige head that was pretty sturdy. This brown ale is not as sweet as a lot of them are, but it had a chocolaty base, and a hoppy finish. They must have thrown a few extra hops in because the beer surprised me in that area. This was a very enjoyable ale. Thanks, sis for bringing it to me!

Baron's Black Wattle Superior Wattle Seed Ale

I have noticed this ale at my local Publix supermarket, but at $11.00 a sixer, I was hesitant to try it. This past weekend, I made a trip to the Total Wine store, and found I could buy a single of it. The Wattle seed was what intrigued me, since I hadn't the slightest clue what a Wattle seed was. As it turns out a Wattle seed is from a native Australian tree, and the seeds have been used for flavoring for many years. The beer poured a chocolate brown color, and had some hints of chocolate in the flavor as well. The bottle described a "lasting creamy head" which turned out to be 1/4 inch tall, as you can see in the picture. This ale was slightly sweet, and had some caramel and vanilla-like flavors, which may or may not be from the Wattle seed. This was a good beer, but not an $11.00 a six-pack beer - at least in my opinion.

Samuel Adams Brown Ale

This is the third beer in the Samuel Adams Brewmaster's Assortment That I bought a few months ago. This brown ale had a small tan head that didn't last long, but left some lacing on the glass. It was a clear brown color, with the aroma of malt and caramel. The caramel was evident in the flavor as well, along with the nutty flavor that brown ales have. It was balanced by the right amount of hops, making this a very enjoyable ale to go with my lunch. Samuel Adams rarely lets me down.

Homebrewed Brown Ale - Initial Taste Test

Today was brewing day - my wife and I made a batch of mead, which we plan to add apricots to, and then we made a strong Scottish Ale. They're both finished, and the yeast are happily fermenting. Since today was brewing day, I decided to pop the top on the first beer of my last batch - a brown ale. I brewed this batch back in mid-June, and it's been carbonating for about 10 days. Based on my totally unbiased opinion, it's perfect! Slightly sweet with some caramel flavor, a little nutty, and a nice hop finish, balance out the ale. As you can see in the photo, it had a healthy tan head, and poured a deep brown. Here's the recipe I used to make 2.5 gallons:

3.3 lbs Briess Sparkling Amber LME

4 oz Crystal Malt 120L

2 oz Black Patent Malt

1 oz Willamette Hops for bittering

1/4 oz Amarillo Hops for finishing

Danstar Windsor Yeast

Corn Sugar for priming

I steeped the malt grains in a gallon of water on the stove, until they reached 165 degrees, then pulled them out. I then heated the wort to boiling, and added the Willamette hops. After 45 minutes, I added the LME, and 10 minutes later, the Amarillo hops. Total boil time was an hour. I then cooled the wort, and added it to a gallon of water in my fermenter, then topped it off to 2.5 gallons total. In went the yeast, and I let it sit in the fermenter for a couple of weeks before bottling. I primed the bottles with corn sugar, and let it carbonate for 10 days.

I normally let a beer sit in the bottles for 2 full weeks before tasting, but today I couldn't wait. I think the rest will be going in the fridge soon.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

The first sip of this ale sent me back to the kitchen, to examine the label on the bottle. Wow - 12 % alcohol. Dogfish Head has released a new high gravity ale, called Palo Santo Marron. The unique thing about this ale is that it was fermented in barrels made from exotic Palo Santo wood, which Sam Calagione got from Paraguay. Just looking at it in the glass tells you that it's a rich flavorful ale. It poured a deep brown, with black cherry colored highlights. The small head was also brown, and did not last long. This tasted like a port wine, with some vanilla coming through. The label referred to this beer as a brown ale, but this is more of an after-dinner beer, and could be a winter-warmer if it was winter. It definitely warmed me up inside. Dogfish Head must be committed to this beer, since they built a number of 10,000 gallon fermenting tanks to make it. Sam's new ale is a winner with me, although I'll drink it for dessert next time, instead of with pasta.

The Shipyard Brown Ale

I'm preparing to bottle a brown ale that I just finished fermenting, so I decided to compare my brown to a commercial brown. While it's not really a fair comparison, given that my homemade brew is not carbonated yet, I thought it would give me an idea what it will be like. My last brown ale was a quasi-disaster because of some artificial hazelnut flavoring I added. My new batch is pure, no artificial colors or flavors added. But I digress. Back to the Shipyard brown: It poured a crystal clear brown color, with a 1 inch tan head that was gone very quickly. It smelled of sweet malt and brown sugar, and the taste had hints of chocolate and caramel. The finish was hoppier and more bitter than I expected - a nice surprise. Shipyard is another fine microbrewery in the Northeast quadrant of the US.

Brooklyn Brown Ale

This is the first beer I have tried from the Brooklyn Brewery, which oddly enough, was brewed in Utica, NY. I assume this is a contract brew being brewed by F.X. Matt - home of the Saranac line of brews. It poured a nice deep brown, with a cream colored head. The head lasted a good long time. Usually, if the head still appears in my photo, then you can be sure it lasted a while - at least as long as it took for me to fumble around with the camera! This was a nice chocolaty brew, with a very mild hop presence. The folks in Utica did a good job on this one.