Hook and Ladder Backdraft Brown Ale

Brewed by High Falls Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Rochester, New York USA

12oz bottle 4/17/09 (Woodmans-Green Bay)-Pours a dark brown with red tints on a tan head. Aroma of roasted malt. Taste is of malt and sweetness. This light to medium bodied beer is not bad but not good. Was expecting a bit more substenance.

Pours a dark brown mahogany with a huge light tan head. Nose is malt. First taste is full bodied with a strong malt flavor. Not as creamy or as carbonated as I’d like but its big bold taste compensates. Pairs well with summer picnic food including burgers and brats.

Coca cola brown with weak, tan head / Thin caramel nose / Light to medium body, watery, with minimal hopping and weak finish / Simple, weak flavors of toasted barley and caramel with cheap, artificial caramel flavor on finish / Poor.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a deep brown with red highlights. Caramel, brown sugar, and wood notes in the nose. Medium carbonation with a medium-light mouthfeel. Roasted notes on the palate. Tastes of toffee, earth, and a bit of wood. Light on the tongue and a bit dry. Finishes very clean. Good flavor and a good session beer.

Pours a slightly murky darker brown with a medium sudsy off-white soda head. Lightly roasted nutty aroma with notes of lighter chocolate and brown sugar. Sweeter, slightly tangy, first taste with light roast, hint of acidity, a mix of caramel, milk chocolate and light molasses, hint of hops in the finish. Medium chewy body with very lively fine sharp soda carbonation, quite quaffable. Nothing too interesting flavor-wise but a nice drinking brown ale.

Bottle: Thick brown with a medium tan head. Aroma is nutty malt and hops. Taste is a maltiness, some sharp hops at the end.

Pours a deep ruby brown with a small head. Aroma is pretty weak, though metallic. Flavor is pretty decent albeit a bit watery; Of malts, creamy, nutty. Mouthfeeel is slightly oily with little carbonation. This stuff is pretty good. Not life-changing, but tasty and round. Overall, good.

It’s a very smooth beer - goes down nice and easy. You can taste the malts pretty distinctly. It’s certainly not a great beer, but it’s extremely solid. On the TEddy scale, I’d give it a pos dec.