Confounding wild-riced flagship nut brown brings soggy grain-roasted nuttiness and curious blood-soured mocha opulence to recessive rye malting and mild browned fruiting (desiccated fig, bosc pear, roasted grape, apple rot). Brown rice adjunct sweetens the fruitier aspects and maca-rooted chestnut roast.
On tap at Abominable Snowfest, smoky walnut-shelled mocha malting receives dry Centennial hop oiling to contrast light maple caramel saucing. Slick plastique scamper covers bitter nut-charred continuance and dark-roasted black chocolate bottom.
Made from an ancient brown ale recipe, light 3.5% ABV oud bruin lets cloying caramel malting offer Coca Cola and sarsaparilla-like sweetness to dewy cellar dankness. Chalky chocolate influence gets sour.
Festive 2015 Christmastime brown ale blends “caramel and dark fruit malts,” picking up sharp hop astringency (50 IBU’s) and wily alcohol burn (7.7% ABV) to briefly overwhelm burgundy-dried fruit spicing. Dewy tobacco roast and dark chocolate mildness caress sugarplum, date, fig and raisin illusions as well as sweet orange peel spell. Subtle nutmeg, ginger and fennel wisps waver below.
Satisfying mocha-dominant brown ale in a can brings cold-pressed Guatemalan coffee roast to oily hop resin, oats-dried pale malting and mild earthen nuttiness. Reminiscent of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, perhaps, its creamy cappuccino snip and dark chocolate smidge sufficiently reinforce the day-old bitter java finish.
Musky oats-toasted nuttiness picks up musty dried fruiting over brown-sugared maple molasses and cocoa-powdered caramel malting. Dank prune, raisin, plum, black cherry and raspberry tones unexpectedly outpace nutty mocha resonance.
Fine Asheville, North Carolina-based microbrewery initially allowed Mississippi’s Lazy Magnolia to brew and bottle its traditional ‘delicate bodied’ English Brown Ale. Mildly creamed toffee-caramel sweetness and wispy brown chocolate snip stay muted as surging walnut, cola nut, hazelnut, chestnut and butternut illusions gain prominence. Asheville’s Three Ring Brewery then took over bottling in 2016, bringing cocoa-dried cola nuttiness to chocolate hazelnut-breaded molasses sweetness and caramel-burnt coffee tones over earthen soiling.
On tap at Ambulance, amplified brown ale brings black chocolate malt linger to light-roasted nuttiness and brown-sugared molasses sweetness. Fudgy hazelnut, pecan and chestnut illusions delicately drift into dusty cocoa chalking. Wispy vanilla creaming and subtle dried fruiting caress backend of compelling ‘imperial’-like dark ale.
First new year round offering in four years, 2015’s supposedly profane brown ale loads “obscenely malted hoppiness” atop dark-roasted nuttiness, black tea herbage and light floral citrus perk. Dry walnut, sweet pecan and honey-glazed hazelnut illusions inundate black patent malt setting. But its charred hop bittering seems understated despite obscene gesture.
Abundant pecan pie sweetness gets loaded atop maple-sugared hazelnut, honeyed praline, toasted almond, white chocolate, coconut shavings and butternut illusions, leaving an intense and unique impression. Candied pecan glaze picks up latent cinnamon-spiced pumpkin puree respite, mild cream soda impression and light almondine glitz. Nearly perfect as a slightly unconventional dessert treat (but picked up slightest diacetyl buttering on second tasting).
Established in Lexington, Kentucky as a whiskey distillery in 1776, James E. Pepper decided to brew rye whiskey-barreled brown ale ’round 2014 at Sterling, Virginia’s Beltway Brewing. Oak-aged rye permanence spreads atop smoky chocolate malts, dried fruiting and nutty nuances. Oaken vanilla phenols retain a dry respite contrasting buttered pecan, maple molasses, praline, toffee and caramel subsidies. Delicate raisin-prune-fig snips and light burgundy-bourbon hints embrace whiskeyed mocha finish.
Penetrative dark-roasted barley malting and toasted hop crisping elevate cocoa-dried black chocolate affluence that contrasts fresh-brewed coffee bittering. Mild nut-charred rye breading works its way into molasses-sugared mocha finish.
