Black Toad Distinctive Dark Ale

Brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
San Jose, California USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

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Pours a dark reddish brown, with a beige head. Toasted malt and nutty aroma with some dark fruit notes. Nutty roasted malt flavor with some caramel and chocolate. Very dark, roasted finish. Some hops finally come through here. I would definitely get this again.

Well, I think this is the least offensive beer I have had from Trader Joes, but that is not really saying much. It has a full, robust nut brown ale look, with a hazelnut center and burgundy edges. A modest off-white cap of tightly formed carbonation fades to a thin ring of larger bubbles after a few minutes. The aroma is full of milk chocolate, hazelnut, and a bit of coffee and cream. Each sip starts out with a light burnt brown sugar sweetness, with hazelnut and slight sweet milk chocolate following. These flavors last for most of the sip, with a slightly bitter coffee note toward the end. The flavor is basic and pretty mild. The mouthfeel falls in the middle in every category. Medium carbonation, medium body, slightly sitcky, slightly oily. If you are trying to create a non-offensive mouthfeel, this is it. I thought this was fine. A step above Newcastle, but there are much better brown ales around.

12oz bottle - pours clear amber with beige head and trace lacing. Nose is caramel, brown sugar and a little chocolate. Flavor adds nuttiness and resin hops. Taste is sweet and bitter with the bitter lasting fairly long. sticky texture. Pretty good beer and easy to drink with enough flavor to keep it from being boring, but not enough to make it a great beer. burp.

Pretty good for a very cheap beer. Aroma and flavors of coffee, chocolate and licorice. Nice balance.

Bottle pourers light brown with red hue, thin off white head. Aroma is thin roast and Carmel malt. Pretty sweet and straight malt flavors of caramel and sweet molasses. Eh.

Subtle but nutty aroma, this pours very dark with a minimal amount of head. Good nutty flavor, and can definitely taste the hints of coffee.

The aroma is very toasted with notes of coffee and grassy hops. The appearance is brown with a small head. The taste is like the aroma. The palate is average. Overall a better than average beer but it seems like a weak porter more than a brown ale.

Bottle. Deep chestnut brown pour with a creamy head that fades quickly. Nice aroma of chocolate, toffee, and molasses. Medium palate. Taste is molasses, caramel, and a touch of coffee. Glad to see Gordon Biersch hit a good one with this.

Very dark and very nutty flavor. This is not my favorite style of beer. Dark carmel color head. Ok aroma.

12 oz bottle from Trader Joe’s. Pours a clear dark brown. Aroma of molasses, peat, caramel, vanilla. Flavor of molasses, peat, pine, toasted grain. A sweeter, molasses and earthy brown ale. Very nice.

I like the taste. I’m used to fairly heavy spicy food, so anything very light does not give me the taste. This is different, not really a dry or light type beer. Also I’m trying out few different dark beer, because they supposed to have high antioxidant. I wish it was bit less on the sweet side, though it is not sweet like of other beers. I like the roasted and coffee type touch. Just a tad bit of bitterness would be great for me... Overall, it a nice beer.