Grand Teton Bitch Creek Extra Special Brown.

Yet another sleeper of a beer I've been putting off buying. I did enjoy that Sweetgrass APA well enough, after all. This second offering from Grand Teton, endearingly name Bitch Creek, is also labeled with an ESB. In passing, I had always assumed this was a standard "ESB", an extra special bitter, but upon closer inspection, it is a brown, not a bitter. I will say I already knocked off a bottle of it before this one. I have to say, this is a pretty luscious brown ale. The nose is warm and inviting, very bready. It reminds me of the iconic, to me, scene of the stack of simple meat and white bread sandwiches (FUCK YEAH SANDWICHES) with the percolator of hot, black coffee. But I digress.

If I had to relate this taste with one other thing in the world, it would be a cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde. The rich, roasted malts essential to the brown ale come on just strong enough to lend a bitterness, with a minor impression of dry (clean) dirt around the edges. As it reminds of cafe au lait, there is a richness that is analogous to adding cream (real, not non-dairy, powdered or otherwise flammable substances), leveling off those sharp peaks.

This is a well-balanced beer. Strong character but without too much bulk. It carries some girth, unlike a Newcastle, but not so low and heavy as strong stout. The carbing reminds me of my homebrew nut brown ale, whatever that may mean to you. Because it's a pretty tasty brown ale, I will forgive it for not being a nut brown ale and failing miserably. I'm going to bet this goes with some smoked cheeses and fresh bread. It would probably also be good with or in some stew-y/roasted beef.

• Appearance: Nearly opaque brown, slight tint of red against a light. Light brown head which fades.
• Smell: Warm, bready aroma with minor coffee notes.
• Taste: A solid coffee based with roasted malts. The darkness is not overdone, and it comes off as slightly 'cafe au lait'. Very pleasant.
• Mouthfeel: Not so light as Newcastle. It has some substance but keeps its distance form stout territory. Carbing is fairly full with a mild bite for a brown ale.
• Drinkability and Overall: 6%ABV, slightly beyond session level, but a few won't hurt you. Decent enough brown ale, of which there are far too few.

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron.

A "Malt Beverage aged on Palo Santo Wood". In true DFH style, Palo Santo Marron is a whopper of an unfiltered brown ale, aged in 10,000 gallon tanks made from Paraguayan Palo Santo wood, which sounds pretty fancy. But I don't actually know anything about this wood. A peek at wiki, which even has a reference to DFH, doesn't say much about why this wood is special, but apparently, it is pretty hard and dense (that's what she said) and the locals use it for winemaking.

DFH was not joking when they said "malt beverage". This thing is super malty. It's like drinking a Whopper. A very rich, alcoholic, liquid Whopper without any milk dilution. Up front, it is chocolately but any sweetness there quickly gives was to a malt monster which is throwing a lot of mud and darkly stained, polished, wooden banisters in your face. It's extremely toasty but definitely not burnt. Expectedly, it is a little sticky. The finish is long-lasting and not unpleasant. It is a little woody, but I get more of a sawdust and balsa wood notion as it lingers.

I have a history of belittling pretty much any brown ale that is not Blackstone Nut Brown, but this is pretty tasty. It's a standard brown ale that looks and feels like it's been simmered on the stove until it turns into a rich, thick gravy of a beer. It's intense. Hailing from DFH, it is, of course, high ABV: 12%. Though I must say it is well-masked. Likewise, the 4-pack also carries a $15 price tag. Here's the thing though: you're going to pay just as much, if not more, at a typical bar for four other beers which are probably not as cool as this one. So I don't feel bad about that. Except that I do because I know I can get a 6-pack of Stone IPA for $8 or $9 dollars. But hey, a 4-pack of 12%ABV beers, that's like a 12-pack, in terms of ABV, right. Well, you know, I can get a case and a half of PBR for that much, get more absolute alcohol volume, and get cool cred (as long as you drink it post-ironically). Sigh, and that's the quandary of DFH. Often overrated and almost always overpriced, but you have to hand it to them for being one of the most creative, daring craft breweries out there even whose disasters are elegant. But Palo Santo Marron is no disaster. This is a monster beer, a definite sipper, most probably out of a snifter. Assertive chocolates and cheeses would be appropriate here.

• Appearance: Completely opaque black. No head save for a toffee-colored ring.
• Smell: Very imperial stout-like, coffee, chocolate.
• Taste: Malt and malt. Very earthy with your standard chocolate, dirt, and wood tones. The wood complexity is evolving throughout. As toasty as you can get without being burnt so the finish isn't overly bitter. Despite all of the stout characteristics, it is definitely a brown ale. Also, major props: it is smooth without any noticeable heat.
• Mouthfeel: Just enough carb to assert itself on your palate. About on par with or maybe a touch higher than an imperial stout. Probably a touch higher. It reminds you that you're still drinking a brown ale and not a stout. A bit sticky on the finish but that's to be expected.
• Drinkability and Overall: A definite sipper at 12%ABV. It is something of a cross between a brown ale and an imperial stout. I'd love to try another one of these after some conditioning.

By the way, I wrote the first half of this post in present tense, in contrast to the previous few posts. I think I like that better because it feels more natural as I'm typing that as I drink. I guess I need to think of it as akin to live-tweeting watching a movie, marathoning a TV series, or a poop.

Bison Imperial Brown Ale.

After that incredibly disappointing so-called imperial IPA, I almost wanted to give up drinking for the day. But then I remembered that I have a backlog of beers to review. So here we go with the Bison Organic Imperial Brown Ale. I realize that trying another "brown" beer could be a bad idea after trying to drink that wonky imp IPA brewed with menstrual blood, but I have faith in Bison.

The pour was a little disconcerting as it was rather still. A tiny head did develop though it didn't stick around long. Nearly opaque in color. Smell is roasty, toasty, dirty, dark chocolate so there's a nice complexity to the nose. Of course, taste is the most critical point for me. I have a history of shaming many a brown ale for not being Blackstone Nut Brown Ale. I've just come to expect that nuttiness and residual sweetness. To me, nut brown ale are simply more enjoyable to plain brown ales. As expected, there was not enough nuttiness here but also not very much sweetness, which is surprising to me. I would expect a higher final gravity here. The extra malt is present, but I still think it could have done with a bit of extra nonfermentable sugar.

I still think this is a pretty good beer though. The taste is clean and balanced, but it's just more of a cooler weather beer. Not sure what kind of food pairing I'd go with here. It's no dinner beer and pairing with a chocolate dessert is pretty cliche. ... Just tried it with a medjool date, and it wasn't that great. I'm going to go ahead and say this would probably be good with oatmeal or granola. ... Yeah, works with granola and peanut butter chips, probably more so with the peanut butter. I think part of it is getting that extra sweetness but the granola adds the extra overall body to the robust but relatively light-feeling beer.

• Appearance: Nearly opaque, dark brown. Small head with low retention.
• Smell: Dirt, chocolate, wood.
• Taste: A stronger, more assertive brown ale taste. Not terribly distinctive, but just a more intense generic brown ale taste, a little toastier.
• Mouthfeel: Carb is low but not flat. It fits well enough. A bit more cohesive than a regular brown ale but not necessarily viscous.
• Drinkability and Overall: 7%ABV so not intense as your might expect from the "imperial" in its name, but still a bit robust to sit around and drink more than one. By no means is it bad, but I guess I had too high expectations tonight.

Telegraph Brewing Co. Obscura Arborea.

Got this the other night at WF when I was having trouble deciding what was interesting. I saw the "lactobacillus" on the label and thought it might be a lacto-stout so I picked up one. Turns out it is actually an oud bruin, AKA Flanders brown ale. I've never actually bought a Flanders, never having seen it in a store but only trying it at bars. The name keeps reminding me of Camera Obscura, of which I was neither a lover nor hater, but that's really beside the point. Label has a sweet-looking tree on it, and the font is nice too. I don't normally care much for labels, but this one is actually quite nice. It indicated that Obscura Arborea is an "Ale aged with oak and lactobacillus/unfiltered, bottle-conditioned". I had read some reviews on it, and they warned that it was violently carbed. One guy said the cork started working its way out on its own after removing the cage. Danger from exploding bottles. Painful carbonation in the mouth. Wow, exciting.

I gave it as gentle of a pour as I could, down the side at a very shallow angle into a willi because I don't have any flutes. Here is the resulting head: wat. I could see many streams of continuous bubbles coming up, the head churning and growing. The color was pleasant, though, and reminded me of fall. At 9%ABV, the first taste seemed a bit hot. It wasn't as sour as I've known Flanders ales to be. Tart in an unripened fruit kind of way, but it wasn't too unripe. Cherries, apples, crabapples smashed on the sidewalk. Tart, not sour. As the beer warmed up, it because more and more enjoyable as the carbonation became more subdued. At the end of the day, I liked it. It's like a gentle beginning for sour/wild ales. I'll try to pick up a few extra bottles to bring home.

• Appearance: Murky dark brown, cider-y brown. Head is off the wall.
• Smell: Tartness, sour cherry, apple, apricot.
• Taste: Tart and bitter, but certainly palatable. It does taste a bit apple cider-y without much sweetness. For a wild ale-family brew, it is easy on the palate.
• Mouthfeel: Highly and finely carbed. It is like drinking a can of soda in a single sip. After some time to breathe and mellow out, it is less violent.
• Drinkability and Overall: I'm not familiar enough with the style to be a very good judge but I do find it enjoyable, especially after some time to vent. At 9%ABV, it is not sessionable, but a bottle or two shared with a friend would make a nice conversation piece as you note the development.

Rogue John John Ale.

Initial impressions were strong on the rum. After a bit, it becomes a standard, if a bit young tasting, brown ale. The hazelnut is barely noticeable on the back end. The rum barrel aging definitely dominates. Viscosity is a bit high to be comfortable in a brown ale and not very well carbed. Not very sweet. Disappointing now, but maybe it'll get better with age.

Peak Organic Nut Brown Ale.

I had some mental note about Peak Organic because I had read somewhere about how great it was. So when I saw it at the store and that they had a nut brown ale, I had to pick up a couple bottles to try.

Small, tight bubbles, creamy head. A little hoppy on the nose. Thin mouthfeel, generic brown taste, a bit of coffee and caramel, and a hop finish reminiscent of Terrapin Hop Karma except milder and not awful.

Overall, pretty disappointing. Also, Peak Organic isn't actually rated all that well either.

Nut Brown Ale.

OG: Supposed to be 1.044. Mine read very low but I think my wort and chilled water were not mixed properly when I took the reading.

Initial tastings were pretty malty and sticky, heavy enough that I didn't want to drink too many pints in a night. I tapped my last draft bottle tonight and it's gotten much smoother. Very on par for a brown ale, though the nuttiness is nowhere near what I'm looking for. At tapping, I lost a lot of CO2, and the first pint couldn't even pour itself. After pressurizing, it came out with a fine, fluffy head.

Addendum 110415: I am about to polish off the last draft bottle of this soon. The extra months of conditioning really smoothed out and lightened up the body and had a sweeter, nuttier taste. Bottom line, this was pretty good but needs a couple months of conditioning to hit its prime.

Goose Island Claybourne.

Spent Thanksgiving with the family, gathering in Chicago. So naturally, I must make my way down to Goose Island. They weren't running tours that weekend due to the holidays, but we still killed an afternoon working on our MBAs.

Sister and I started with the Foxxy and Hex Nut Brown, respectively. Foxxy was a mild brown ale which I found to be pretty uneventful. The Hex was really good though. I would put it a close contender to Blackstone. I hope they start bottling this version since they've discontinued their standard nut brown ale.

The Belgian IPA was tasty, Belgian, and IPA-ish but it wasn't anything unique.

Dominique is a sour ale aged in bourbon barrels, so there's a lot going on. It tastes exactly as they described it. I always try sour ales even though I'm not really a fan. It's always interesting. BIL ended up finishing it since he seemed to like it a bit.

I got a half of the FairytAle, some guest chef collaboration. It was hard to pin down but I was sure that I didn't like it. "It smells like Taylor Swift and tastes like poop smells." Couldn't have said it better. Note to self: construct more colorful descriptions of my drinking experiences. Addendum: Apparently, it was "poop sticks", as in a "stick of poop", not referring to how poop might stick to a surface. Hearing and parsing fail. I like what I thought I heard better.

Frankenporter is a blend of multiple porter recipes. The result is a pretty stout porter with a lot of complexity. Tasty.

Blonde Rascal: A Belgian-style ale, though the hop blend seems IPA-ish to me, and steeped with lavender. A really floral and interesting ale. Mildly hoppy, fragrant, effervescent, light-bodied, and very smooth.

Schwarzbier: B-in-l ordered it. Didn't try it, but took a snap since it's not common.

Had to try the Christmas Ale for 2010. Can't say much without 2009 for comparison.

Had to try the Golden Goose Pils since I've never seen a bottle of it. Tastes like pilsner. Reminded me that I don't really like pilsners.

Finished with a classic: IPA. Delicious.

Terrapin Hop Karma Brown IPA.

Had a nice chocolate coffee nose but it was downhill from there. Starts off like a brown ale but turns into an unbalanced hop taste, too much bitterness and finishes metallic (like Salada green tea). Some people like the heavy hopping, but for a brown ale, I really dislike it. I don't think it fits well with the brown ale context.

Ridgeway Warm Welcome.

On sale for $4, off of $6. Huge bubbles, weak carb, no head, no lacing, hot finish.

Hands down, the worst nut brown ale I've ever had. Tastes like swill. I actually only took three sips and then poured the rest down the drain.

He'Brew 13th Anniversary Jewbelation Ale.

The successor to the 12th anniversary (here), brewed this time with 13 hops and malts. If my memory serves me correctly, it's pretty similar to the 12th with a few subtle differences. This one tastes more chocolate-y up front, even moreso than ST Choklat. The nose is like buttery bread which is interesting. However, like its predecessor, it's mostly unamusing with similar body, carbonation, lacing, etc. Considering its potency, it's pretty good at its price point though it'd be a bit heavy for getting drunk.

Goose Island Christmas Ale.

Goose Island apparently changes this recipe a bit every year. And it's bottle-conditionable. A spice, brown ale, I'm not sure if I like it. It's definitely one that needs some maturing. I kind of wish Goose Island would release these after they've aged them a year because it still tastes a bit yeasty. I might consider picking up a couple bottles for the forthcoming years if it were a little cheaper.

Abita Pecan Harvest.

I'm only guessing that this is a brown ale. It's pretty good though. The nuttiness doesn't come through clearly until the very end, and the residue tastes like candied pecans.

Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar.

I would have to say this is one of the better nut brown ales I've tried. Most nut browns are just weak variations of a brown ale. This one had a robust, full body with a smoothness that most brown ales lack (Newcastle, I'm looking at you.). The creaminess brought in some sweetness to help support the noticeably nutty tones. In the end, however, it's no Blackstone. But if this is a (mildly) distant second, everything else is dead last. I'd buy it again.

Lake Placid Ubu Ale.

I first had a pint of this at the bar and had my mouth blown away and also fooled into thinking I was drinking something Belgian. It had been preceded by a pint of Yeungling so switching to something like Ubu was a big change of pace. I enjoyed it enough that I gave it a tasting at a brewfest to confirm my thoughts and picked up a sixer later. It's actually an English brown ale but much richer than your typical Newcastle. While I still get a hint of maltiness, it's not nearly as pronounced as it was the first time and it definitely lacks the body of Belgian ales. But I like it well enough.

Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale.

I had heard good things about Samuel Smith, in general. The nut brown is good, probably better than most, but no Blackstone.

Blackstone Nut Brown.

The best brown ale ever.

I also had a flight of their regular, on-tap beer, brewed in-house. I found most somewhat unremarkable, but I did like the Red Springs ale which is an English Bitter. English Bitters kind of remind me of IPAs but not as floral and with the body of a pilsner. I also had one of their seasonals, the Maris Otter, which, by their analogy, is a varietal wine of beers. I assume they mean it uses a single type of barley. I was rather undecided on whether or not I liked it at the time and still am so. I was reminded of Matilda's evocation of a dwindling campfire. This was more like the exhale of a cigarette, though whether that cigarette was cheap or not, I couldn't tell. If I had had a pint at the beginning of the night instead of the end, I might have had a finer palate.

He'Brew Jewbelation Ale.

Curiously cute, obviously. Jews. 12 hops, 12 malts, 12% ABV. Very finely carbonated, which dies off quickly, drinks like a stout. The taste is wildly complex, which is both expected and surprising considering the 12 theme and the other He'Brews I tried. It's strong and dark...but not mind-blowing. This is kind of the equivalent of my morning Yuban. Sort of? But not really. Cute, nonetheless. And it comes in a 22 oz bottle.

He'Brew Genesis Ale.

Ale-y. Bland. Meh.

I was apparently too drunk to take a picture.

Goose Island Nut Brown Ale.

Hm. Hm. I have to say that this is the first disappointing offering from Goose Island. Not up to snuff when compared to Blackstone's in Nashville.