3.7 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20Poured into a NB globe.
Aroma is dense cocoa, herbal hoppiness, caramel, and some residual burn sugars.
Nice!
Taste is initially black patent malt, followed by a ton of biscuit and caramel, and an herbal sweet hoppiness rounds out the flavors.
Very well balanced flavor-wise. Nothing extremely out of proportion except maybe the roastiness and the sugar level. 4.7 for a mild is kind of a high ABV.
Finishes herbal and bitter and with a bit of sweetness, and a touch of sourness.
Yum!
3.9 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 16/20
Draught pint. Brown-mahogany color, good lacing. I agree with the description for the most part, except I couldn’t taste much hops in it - it’s kind of like newcastle, but better. Pretty freaking good, quality session.
3.7 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Brown pour, slightly off white head. Roasted malt and light caramel. Flavor is yeasty, roasty, little bit of chocolate. Nice and drinkable beer.
3.8 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
GABF. Brown pour. Breast notes, medium toasted malt and light cocoa. Flavor is really nice. Bread, yeasty flavors, smooth roasted malt, hints of chocolate and a hint of a dark dried fruit. Nice beer.
3.7 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
On tap @ Dragoon - Pours a deep brown color with a thin off white head. Nice lacing. Aroma is lightly toasted malt and a hint of herbal hops. Flavor is toasted malt, light esters, and herbal hops. Finish is slightly bitter and malty. Medium body. A good beer.
3.9 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
A steady pour from my growler produces a fairly dense, initially two finger thick, pale brown tinged, tan colored head in my New Belgium globe glass; the head leaves a regular, layered lacing pattern on the sides of my glass as I drink this down. The beer is a concentrated brown color that shows a brilliantly clear, deep cranberry red hue when held up to the light. The aroma smells of husky, toasted grain, ample brown bread notes, sweet caramelized malt and then a rich mix of cocoa and fruity berry notes. Everything together somehow makes me think of a vanilla scented, sweet, moist whole grain bread or perhaps even cake in some way. A really deep draught of the nose has me noticing a lot more dried hay and brown cracker like malt character.
The beer has a light sweetness to it up front and towards the finish it dries out with some touches of roasted malt, perhaps a hint of herbal hop bitterness, some dried hay and cracker like dry maltiness. The lingering finish sees the chewy, dense malty sweetness come back out again, though ultimately a dry, roasted character lingers on the palate with just a touch of astringency. The last sets one up nicely to take another sip. The body on this beer feels huge for a low gravity beer; this is definitely chewy, somewhat viscous and has a heft to it that belies its strength. Still, this is all within the context of a lower alcohol beer as this beer is eminently quaffable & I feel like I could drink quite a few pints of this beer and be quite happy. I also like that despite its body, the beer is not overly sweet; it could perhaps be a touch more dry (though I wouldn’t want this beer to be actually dry), but I also wouldn’t want this to get any higher in alcohol than it already is. There is a solid supporting fruitiness to this beer, this is accentuated by the fruitiness, and has a berry sort of character to it; this is offset / balanced by a light herbal character that seems to be hop contributed, though this is most certainly a malt dominated beer; some of the fruit character, perhaps just a smidge, seems to be accentuated by the subtle, soft hop character. The roast character here is quite light (especially when compared to a porter and stout), quite appropriately so of course, but does contribute a roasted edge, a touch of burnt astringency (though without a real focus on the roasted character). This really has a creaminess to it that is quite lush, especially in my second pour of this beer; this is a beer that would be ripe for cask conditioning and dispensing (Tucson definitely needs some real, true cask condition serving joints; hint, hint).
The chewy texture, ample malt flavor, balance between dark malt and sweetness, and quaffability make this a great beer for pairing with food. I could wish for something closer to 4% in strength (in fact I always prefer my own milds to be under 4%), but I could see the low alcohol perhaps being a harder sell for your typical craft beer drinker. In truth though, I am really quite enjoying this beer & I won’t mind in the least that I have a couple pints of this. I really wish this style of beer was a lot easier to get; I really hope this does well here in Tucson, it would be nice to have this as an easy option when going out to dinner around town. I will always have soft spot for milds as they were one of those styles that I had to brew myself in order to actually try the style for the first time.
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