Heavyweight Chuck

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

Serve in Dimpled mug

Pours a hazy brown. Aroma of apple, spice, and some general sourness. Flavor is of sour apples, pie spices, and a mild maltiness. Definately interesting.

Smells vaguely like squash and pasta, and more of nondescript malt. No hops to speak of but some bretty qualities. Holy shit! Acid mania!It’s been suggested that this is somewhat Rodenbachish, but it’s not that balanced, and the acidity is different--it’s lactic and not acetic. Sour milk burp is coming and it’s not appealing. If you dig lactic, you’ll like this, but not my cup of tea. Thanks to cornboy!

Poured a darker reddish-brown color with a small off white head. Aromas and tastes of citrus (lemons and oranges), spicy and apple. Lightly sour with a light sweet balance. Crisp and dry finish.

01.13.05 750ml bottle from brewery. The last time I had this was back in October or November and I didn’t love it, as often happens when I drink beers brewed with wild yeasts, so I socked my other three bottles away hoping some time would help.
Dark copper brown pour with big, fizzy, tan head. Aromas are ripe and funky with some sweet fruit notes, cherry, apple. Very sour flavors but also sweet -- underlying brown sugar notes and green grapes or apple skin. Sharp cheesey, like gruyere, with a similar dry quality. It’s good, not great, and way unusual. There’s no pinning this one down to a style but it’s a fun experimental beer from a great local brewer. Pretty light and quaffable, but it’s still not my thing.

UPDATED: JAN 30, 2005 Had to rerate, this one is evolving into one heck of an ale. Reminiscent of Rodenbach grand cru at this point, I can only hope this one keeps developing as well as it has so far. This is one odd beer. The bottle I had had very geuze-like qualities. Seems the recipe has changed slightly from what I read of others experience with it. Aromas of gruyere cheese, very funky stuff going on with hints of sour. Taste was very earthy, difficult to explain as it morphed with each sip. Nice sour funkiness up front with a slight malt finish. Unlike anything I have tried before, I enjoyed it except for the smell.

On Tap: I don’t know - seems like I have bad luck with some Heavyweight brews. Maybe they don’t travel well and I always get a bad sample. This one looks good - dark ruby-amber color with a low tight head. But the nose is of sour milk and vegetables. Stale roasted - even smokey - grain tastes. Some alcohol peaking through with a gritty mouthfeel. Thick, complex but not successful.

Bottle pours a cloudy brown, reddish hues, fizzly off-white head, attractive lacing, with strong carbonation.   Sour nose, slightly sweet & malty.   Perhaps a bit earthy as well.   Sourness greets the tongue on first sip.   Slight spices as well.   Decent body, but a bit overcarbonated.   Lingering sour finish.   Not bad, but nothing terribly entertaining.   Thanks goes out to Eyedrinkale for the trade!

On Tap at the Blind Tiger Ale House in NYC, Nov. 2004: Dark brown color, creamy head, veggie nose, also malt and candy in the nose. Light bread and malt taste - also Celery comes through - weird and not my taste.