Long Valley Nut Brown

a lighter brown pour without much head... a decent attempt at a brown ale but nothing great, a watered down version of a Newcastle Brown Ale, but not even close to the same flavor or quality

Clear, rather pale amber – surprisingly. The small white cover leaves a lasting ring. Highly toasty, almost Vienna-like malts with white almond notes showing through as leafy hops come and cut through the rather high sweetness level. Brief finish, refreshing carbonation, but slightly sloppy texture.

Clear copper body with beige head. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel, nut. Taste is medium sweet, caramel, nut, light chocolate. Low carbonation, light-medium body.

On tap at the brew pub. Pours a translucent amber with golden highlights…not brown and it had small bubbly lightly off white head. Aroma of light nuts, some toasted malts, caramel and citrus. Aroma on the light side. Flavor of lightly toasted malts, some nuts, citrus, hop flavor and light hop bitterness. Not sure how this won GABF in 2004 and 2005 in the brown ale category…doesn’t seem to fit the style exactly.

Though the nose carried a nice nutty aroma, none of the earthiness typical of the style was apparent in the flavor. The profile was very similar to their amber, but with a less hoppy finish. Rather watery and overall unsatisfying.