726. Ale Asylum – Madtown Nutbrown

Posted By kkozlen on Sep 3, 2014 | 0 comments

I’m winding down my last few days at work, so my days haven’t been too bad. Tonight, we took the kids out to dinner. When we got home, it was such an awesome night outside, I decided to grab a beer out of the fridge, sit on the deck, and do a beer review. I picked up this beer on one of our trips up to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, when we stopped at a gas station in Wisconsin Dells. There’s no “Best enjoyed by” date on it, but the bottle says, “Our nutbrown ale is velvety smooth with a rich caramel aroma. We blend 7 different malts for a creamy finish you’ll dig. Madtown Nutbrown is a bridge with passion and is best enjoyed that way. ”

Location: Poured into a curved pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.5% ABV, ~150 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s a rusty brown in color, with some reddish highlights when held up to the light. There’s a good amount of sediment in it, but otherwise it’s clear and has a good amount of carbonation in it. However, there’s almost no head, just the ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass. It has a toasty, nutty aroma mixed with some toffee-like maltiness.

Taste & Feel: The body is light-medium and the mouthfeel is lightly crisp from all the carbonation in it. Up front, the beer has a lightly sweet, toasty, nutty-caramel flavor. There’s a bit of carbonation tingle up front which smooths out in the nutty-caramel, malty middle. The nutty characters come forward more in the finish, but the caramel maltiness is still fairly present. There’s also just a little bit of cocoa-like bitterness in the finish as well. The caramel and nutty maltiness lasts for a brief time in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has a good amount of nutty and caramel malt flavors. Therefore, it would be a great pairing for barbecue ribs or other BBQ dishes with a sweet or tangy sauce.

Overall Impression: I enjoyed the nutty and caramel malt flavors quite a bit, and like how they shifted slightly throughout each sip. However, I would have preferred a little bit more creaminess, instead of the light carbonation bite it had. Overall, I enjoyed the flavors, which were nice on a cool fall-like evening.

My Rating: