Great Waters Centurion

Formerly brewed at Great Waters Brewing
Style: Brown Ale
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

the name I read off of the chalkboard was "New Centurion"... Appearance: brown, lush carbonation, tall, creamy cap of foam. Nice. Nose: malt peaks through, brown sugar, molasses... In the taste, a definite sweetness, but very mellow in the mouth. Mildness is the order of the day, but very satisfactory. I’m not truly a fan of mild ales, but this one fits the bill very well, and is considerably flavorful for the style. Made more palatable by the cask serving. Medium bodied, light finish. I’d drink it again.

On cask at the pub. This stuff is freakin’ lovely. Brownish-red. Good nose, peaty, sugary, sweet, and earthy. Great flavor, lightly hoppy and dry, filled with a peaty earthiness, lightly sweet at the end. Perfectly suited for cask. Very nice stuff.

Dark crimson color with a medium creamy head. Just a little malt aroma with some nuts, but not like popping a bag of walnuts. The beer struck me as very chalky and dry. The nut flavor never really got going, and there was a dry baker’s chocolate that was making its way to the front. Tasty enough, but not a favorite by far.

On-cask at the brewpub: I must first say, wow! The new brewer has really gone ahead full steam with some of the new beers and I couldn’t be more content having these available 10 blocks from me. Color is a medium/dark brown with an amber glow to some parts of its overall when up to brighter light. Medium-smallish cap of bubbly light tanned foam sits atop for a good length. Lacing adequately leaves some strings as its consumed. Aroma is mostly made up of maple syrup and brown sugar with a nice clean cookie dough presence about its waft. Touches of cinnamon, vanilla, and oatmeal decorate a cocoa backing. Nice soft cocoa-milken front, lofty, airy; brilliantly merging into a stream of big maple and brown shugga softness. Bold and airy to its character. A total change from most other cask renditions brought out from GW. This was heavenly once you got a few sips in ya. Big but lovingly delicate and soft cookie dough presence with hints to vanilla, peprika, cinnamon, and has loads of maple enduced cookie batter. Its like drinkin’ a cookie. Finishes lightly dry with another smaller route into some soft cocoa as it fades into a cookie dough enlightened daydream pillow nap. Feel is amazingly soft and supple with a big mediumness with not a drop of emptyness. Grabs with the cocoa, heads to maple/brown sugar, and stays the course right back around into the cocoa all the while maintaining the same soft body and warmth from the cask you’d expect a big Brown Ale to have. Very nice. Now ordinarily I find most browns to be a bit drab and boring, but this is quite a miraculous brown. Big on cookie dough-maple character with a nice leveling cocoa display rollicking the rest of the forgotten notes in a symphony of cask pulled hamrony. By far one of the best beers off the cask I’ve encountered at Great Waters. Yippee woo haw good stuff!