Muskoka Dark Ale

Brewed by Lakes of Muskoka Cottage Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Bracebridge, Canada

Chestnut brown. Apple and coffee aroma. Lightish body, fairly dry, rather complex, but perhaps on the edge of feeling thin.

Dark chestnut colour. Aroma shows fairly assertive (for this brewery) caramel-toffee flavour and a whiff of dying embers. The body is a light, but these flavours persist. Dries as it goes.

Very dark brown colour with a thick tan head. The aroma is lightly chocolatey, milk chocolate, dark toasted malts and a hint of light roast. A bit of caramelly character in the nose as well. Sweet toasty flavour, deep rich chocolatey malts. Lingering earthy finish with a soft bitterness. Really more a porter than a brown ale, but it’s tasty, no matter what you call it.

A bit sweet, hoppy, a bit spicy.

Bottled - Smokeless Joes Toronto. i do wish brown ales would come themselves brown rather than dark. I was hoping for a black beer but got a mid brown schwarzbier like tasting beer. Not unpleasant and had some nutty qualities but nowt special.

Dark brown with a foamy off-white head.Slightly malty nose with cardboard. Malts come out without much interest, slightly sweet notes, with signs of oxidation. Body is light to medium. Uninteresting.

Bottle. Dark maple color, lasting head, clear. Decent malty/molasses nose. Not a heckuva lot of flavor unfortunately, just some boring light fruity (cherry) bits amidst the undistinguished maltiness, in a too-light body. A bit of odd sourness also detracts. Next!

Draught. At 2009 C’est What Fall festival. Hazy brown-red pour with an average creamy beige head. Dry, nutty roast aroma, slightly herbal - very weak. The taste is nutty roast caramel, but oddly sour, strange considering it was on draught ... Light, astringent mouthfeel, virtually flat, quick-finishing with a dry lemon-sour linger. Mmm, not so much, thanks.