Johnstown Old Stone Bridge Brown

Very dark brown appearance, chocolate aroma with a hint of caramel. Smooth on the tongue, sweet with hints of bitterness. I enjoyed this one.

Medium chocolatey aroma, caramel maltiness and fruity Tootsie Roll notes. Light coffee. Deep brown clear with thin off-tan head. Mild medium body with fairly smooth carbonation. Starts with medium sweetness, chocolate, and Tootsie Roll. Nice coffee bitterness. Finish is light sweet with good roasted bitterness. Good balance of sweet and bitter. Decent brown ale.

My first trip to the JBC. Ah, I see the ubiquitous brown ale on the menu. Now I must confess that I am rather fussy about my brown ales. Very few interest me that much, but those that do I can be a bit passionate about. This draft came out a dark red-brown color. Pleasant and it glowed lovingly as I held it to the light. The aroma was mildly malty and had hints of coffee. But then the taste. It was dry. Bone dry. My tongue cried out for some sweetness. But the tongue is too busy fighting off the bitter smoky flavors that mercilessly assail it. And watery thin again! Why must every beer here taste like someone filled the glass 1/4 of the way with water before filling the rest with the draft. But, as I say, I am hit or miss with brown ales. You can do the math for this one.

I realized looking at my notes that my number scores were being way too kind to this beer. Appearance: muddy, murky mess, like weak coffee with the grounds still in it. Aroma: coffee and burnt nuts. Flavor: weak coffee. Finish: thick. Hmmm. Here’s hoping Barrett gets this one back on its feet.

Update:Now filtered: much better looking. Milder. Sweeter malt aroma. Smart start but ends mildly alcoholic with too few hops. Much better than before, drinkable, but not good either. New score: 2.7