Empyrean Third Stone Brown

Brewed by Empyrean Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Lincoln, Nebraska USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

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My first NE beer? Sep Bier Meisters meeting. Muddy brown color, khaki head. Aroma is mildly roasty with nutty notes, maybe some broen sugar and plums. Taste is roasty, chocolate, coffee, and hops. Some light bitterness in the finish. Nice brown ale.

Bottle picked up at Beertopia Omaha, opened in Exira, Iowa. Hazy, dark brown appearance with an off white head. Roasty, nutty, a bit charred aroma with light notes of fruit and wood. Burnt, roasty caramel malty, a touch smoky, lightly fruity flavor with a smooth finish and relatively little in the aftertaste. Easy enough to drink.

Very smooth. Brings a nice balance but leaves something to be desired with the flavor and complexity. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iSomething

Thanks, Ryan, for the rare Nebraska beers! Tasted from bottle into nucleated pint glass. Cool design: I like these short and stout pry-top bottles, mysterious naming and graphic design, cool box, too. The bottles are unfiltered and unpasteurized, making them as close to brew-pub "real ale" as possible. The little things do make a difference. Poured a mostly translucent reddish-brown color with some yeast haze, off-white head and some nice Belgian lace. Irresistable perfumey aromas of brown malt, fresh-baked bread, roasted barley, some Munich melanoidins, chocolate, coffee, tart fruitiness, earthy English-style hops, even a slight cidery sourness. Flavor matched the aromas. I prefer a little more unmalted barley or oatmeal for body and head-retention, but this beer’s emphasis on light-bodied, non-filling refreshment perfectly matched the brewer’s description. Despite the layers of bready complexity (similar to their Darkside Vanilla Porter), Third Stone had a thin, almost watery mouthfeel with a faint, long-lasting, fruity aftertaste which left me wanting a few more. DELICIOUS! I think this beer is being woefully underrated by most people.

Pours a nice deep opaque brown. Decent head, no retention. Dark chocolate malt and cocoa and a bit of espresso nose, though I did find the aroma a bit muted. Taste amplifies these notes over a medium-heavy mouthfeel despite the brewer’s testament to be the opposite. Has a clean creamy quality to it. I like my browns to be medium bodied and to distance themselves from Stouts. My first selection by this brewery, and not bad.

Pours dark brown..Chocolate coffee aroma...taste is nutty caramel smooth lasting finish..good stuff

Bottle. Dark brown/amber pour with a khaki colored head. Nose is slightly sweet and dusty. Medium palate. Taste is mild chocolate, a hint of fruit, sweet caramel, and some earthiness. Not too bad.

Straight out of the bottle: Decent brown ale, nothing too earth shattering in any category.

Draft. Clear amber color, thick off white head with good retention and solid lacing. Aroma of cardboard and caramel. Taste is chocolate, caramel and cardboard.

Pours a very pretty deep reddish brown color with a nice big tight khaki head that leaves a nice lacing on the glass.

The beer displays a very nice nutty aroma with some nice chocolate and coffee tones. This smells pretty inviting.

The flavor is very chocolaty with a nice hoppy presence that exists more for bitterness but does hold a nice piney hop flavor mid palate. There are some mild nutty and vanilla notes to the beer as well, but hops and chocolate are the big stars of the show. Despite smelling very sweet and despite all the chocolate flavor in this one the beer really presents it’s self as surprisingly dry particularly in the finish. The beer is pretty bitter all around and it has a kind of roughness around the edges. As I drink this a part of me would like to see it tweaked... smoothed out a bit & part of me likes the brashness of the flavors here... "light on the tastebuds" my ass. Don’t sell yourself short on this one Empyrean.

The carbonation comes across a little too powerful for the flavors in this beer, seems almost sodapop like, it’s not awful & doesn’t really detract much from the beer... but it’s mildly annoying.

I’m not about to give up on Empyrean, I’ve had a few beers from them that I genuinely don’t care for... but stuff like Luna Sea and this give me hope for a relative newcomer on the Des Moines market.

Pours a clear brown with a thin, beige head. Aroma is big on roasted nuts, sweet granola, chocolate, a touch of roast, earth and burnt sugar. Flavor is roasted nuts, chocolate, roast, a hint of smoky char, caramel covered granola, earthy hops, hay, flan and earthy, herbal hops. Palate is light to medium bodied, creamy, but a little stick on entry and off dry on the finish, with a moderate, possibly a little over-sharp carbonation. Very nice brown ale.