Location: Poured into a Stella Artois chalice from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 5.5% ABV, 25 IBUs, 170 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: It’s dark brown in color, with some brown highlights when held up to the light. It’s got plenty of carbonation in it, leaving a thin, tan, tightly packed, creamy head. It’s also got a nice nutty, toffee-like aroma to it.
Taste & Feel: The body is light-medium, and the mouthfeel is slightly creamy with a little bit of a watery feeling and carbonation bite. The flavor up front was a bit nutty with a good amount of oxidation. In the middle, there’s some caramel maltiness with a hazelnut-like nuttiness. In the finish, there’s a good amount of earthy hop and grainy bitterness. The box-like oxidation and nuttiness lasted for a bit in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: The flavors in this beer were a bit nutty with a fair amount of oxidation. Therefore, I’d go with a bold, flavorful food or something spicy, as the flavors in the beer would help to tempter the spiciness. For me, I’d pair this with something like a spicy chicken pad Thai dish to get some of the nuttiness out of the peanuts, and let the beer knock down some of the spiciness a bit.
Overall Impression: I feel a bit bad being overly critical of this beer, as it was bottled over two years ago. It did have quite a bit of noticeable oxidation, giving it a box-like flavor. There was a decent amount of nutty maltiness still there, but it was hard to look past the oxidation. If I do get a chance to try this one fresh, I’ll redo my review, but as for this particular bottle, it did not hold up.
My Rating: 
