Tröegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale

Brewed by Tröegs Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania USA

An excellent brown, generally a very boring style, this one was dressed up a bit. Cola and chocolate nose. Palate is nutty, sweet, malty with a bit of coffee at the back end. Smoky. Complex and rewarding. Appearance is a reddish brown.

Two fingers of pillowy off-white (tan) head. Thick, opaque. Dark brown with a red tinge at the edges. Slightest hints of light pass through. The smell is smoky with a hint of some mocha and dark chocolate. Some slightly bitter English malts. Feint, but pleasant enough. The taste is sweet dark caramel and chocolate. Mocha coffee. Malts are bready and dry, and they balance the sweeter stuff. Nutty, not overly cloying, as some browns can be. Not the brown sugar. The feel is milky and smooth on the tongue. Velvety. Top notch. It’s really one of the better browns I have had. It’s bitter and sweet as well. Loaded with caramel and hints of chocolate. Just great.

Pours an extremely dark red/brown with a one finger head that turns into a frothy crown. Very nice looking. Smells of chocolate, a nutty scent, piney hops. A good scent. Tastes decent, tastes up front of sweet malts and the bitterness if it is present is very little. Mouth is a problem here, this comes off almost flat. I’m always for a thick brew, but for this particular style, i needed some bubbly! It isn’t that this is a bad beer, up that carbonation and you have a winner, but until then, I probably would skip this one.

This isn’t the most compelling style to brew in, but I thought this was a really nice nut brown ale. This is the first ever beer I’ve drank from my special Sam Adams glass (which I’ve had for years - my wife usually drinks milk out of it), so maybe that has something to do with it....but I doubt it. This beer offers a rich coffee color and a small amount of head. Aroma is honestly nutty - some sweet caramel notes balanced with maltiness that does tastes a tad nutty. Flavor is a little metallic, caramel-y, cereal-y and a touch hoppy. A nice, well-balanced beer. Mouthfeel is a touch on the thin side, but pretty good. I’d recommend this beer. Like I said, it’s not the most extreme style to brew in, but this beer was pretty enjoyable. I bought this bottle at Rileys in Madison, WI.

Poured from a 12oz. bottle into a pint glass. The color is Dark black, held to the light it has a deep maroon or red color. The was a slight foamy light brown head which dissolved rather quick leaving no film on the glass. The smell is slightly fruity at first, nutty with a nice hint of hops in the background. The taste has a good subtleness to it. Nutty with some hints of roasted malts it has a nice amount taste but not overpowering. The feel of this beer is very light. Low in ABV and well balanced. It makes a pretty good session beer as well as a good beer for it’s smoothness.

Clear bronze with ruby highlights, fizzy tan head. Mild cocoa powder aroma, sweet and nutty almost like nutella. Leans to the sweeter side, but decent balance, with notes of peanut butter candy, earthy hops and a slightly chocolate finish. Easy drinker!

Found this one bottled in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Slightly sweet, nutty, malty, a bit of milk chocolate, very slightly bitter finish, a very nice, delicate brown ale.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a clear dark brown color with a medium sized foamy white head. The aroma is moderately sweet nutty, light malt with a slight hint of chocolate. The flavor opens with a nice caramel/toffee maltiness, nutty, chocolate, with some green hops that lead to a dry slightly bitter finish. In terms of brown ales, this is done fairly well. Still hard to get excited over all but the best browns.