Posted By kkozlen on May 30, 2015 | 1 comment

Today has been a pretty good day… Yesterday was the kids last day of school, so my wife and I took off work to hang out with the kids. This morning, one of our neighbors invited several families over for donuts and a walk around the neighborhood, which was a lot of fun. I then worked on the house and we picked out new hardwood floors. After the kids fell asleep watching tv, I decided to have a beer. This is one of the beers my sister brought me from her trip to Asheville, NC. The bottle says:

“Our brown ale is crafted as an ode to the traditional English brown. It’s delicate body allows the flavors of caramel and toffee from our specialty malts to come to life.”

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

Numbers: 6.1% ABV, ~150 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: The color is dark brick reddish-brown and it’s pretty clear. There is a good amount of carbonation in it, but the head fell quickly, leaving only a ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass. The aroma is solidly caramel-toffee maltiness.

Taste & Feel: The body is light and the mouthfeel is a little bit crisp. The flavor up front is a lightly sweet caramel maltiness. The maltiness grows in the middle with the addition of some darker toffee like maltiness and some earthy bitterness to balance it a bit. The finish is a mix of earthy bitterness and toffee maltiness, but the aftertaste is mostly the malty-sweet flavors.

Food Pairing: This beer has a good amount of caramel-toffee like sweet maltiness, and would be a perfect complementary pairing for a juicy burger with mushrooms, sautéed onion, and Swiss cheese. Because of it’s sweeter malty flavors, I think it also has great potential for pairing with a chocolate dessert, like a brownie or even a lighter dessert like a cheesecake or coconut cream pie.

Overall Impression: I especially enjoyed the caramel and toffee malty flavors and thought they mixed nicely with the earthy hop bitterness. It was pretty straightforward, and I think it could have been even better if it were a bit creamier. Overall, it was a good brew, and I’d love to try more of their beers.

My Rating: