Tröegs Rugged Trail Nut Brown Ale

Ordered this at the bar last night because I know the bartender and I don’t think they go through much of this stuff. Poured a nice dark brown with off-white head. Decent carbonation keeps this exciting with some nice hops on the finish.

Dark brown, light brown head. Smells of chocolate, lightly roasted malts and some hops. Flavour has lots of burnt chocolate malt. The brew strays from being overly sweet. Faint hints of almond and coffee.

THOUGHTS: A very flavorful session beer. I like to have a couple of these if I know I will be driving later, so I can have a flavorful, dark beer without getting drunk. Goes well with a lot of food too. Almost like a cross between a dry stout and a porter, only lighter. A really nice session beer. It was even good straight from the bottle which I was forced to do at a concert I recently attended. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brownish red with a small to average, off white head that mostlry diminished and left virtually no head. The aroma was toasted, burnt and mild coffee malt along with a slight cola aroma. The initial flavor was moderately swett, lightly bitter, and sour, while the finish was moderately to heavily sweet and bitter, and sour with an average duration. The flavor was a little watery but great for a lower ABV beer. The dominant flavors were caramel and tasted and burnt malts and a slight hops finish. The medium body was oily with tingly carbonation and an astringent finish.

Date: 04/08/2003
Mode: Bottle
Source: Whole Foods Market, DC

clear brown with ruby edges, foamy off-white head, sweet nutty malt aroma, rich malt flavor, nice nutty character, light bitter finish, not often you find a nut brown with a nutty character
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Date: 08/15/2006
Score: ii+ to ii
Words: Bottle
Words: Roadtrip

clear dark brown, thin beige head, light malty nutty chocolate aroma, creamy body, nice chocolate flavor, touch of carmel sweetness, light bitterness, nice but not a whole lot of complexity

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: *4

Poured from a Troegs variety pack. I enjoyed the aroma, nutty and oaky. I’d like to think this is the way a brown ale should be. My wife loves the style and this is one of her favorites. Best way to describe it is imagine a newcastle, but much better.

Poured a beautiful brown color with HUGE head. Frothy. Nutty/oaky smell practically leapt out of my glass. I could have stared at this and smelled it for quite a while, but it was begging to be quaffed. This beer has one of the most unique tastes of any I’ve tried. Taste was REALLY nutty with, I guess oaky taste too. When I say REALLY nutty, I mean REALLY nutty. I wanted to rate this higher, but only trying it once, and a small sample at that, I feel I have to see how 1 or 2 whole beers go down to see if the taste gets to me after a while. Rich. I will definitely have this again and probably update rating

very much like the other troegs I have sampled recently. very drinkable but rather plain. A caramel and nut taste with not a lot of bite.

A dark velvet, almost cola tint forms minimal head....syrupy sugar maltiness in the nose...swift, thin rush to the throat--distributes evenly...a bit too fizzy and a bit too un-nutty to produce high marks...a malt presence that suggests imbalance...with time, the taste settles in the tastebuds...not among the better nut browns, but not a turn-off to the style either....Troegs gets the benefit of the doubt normally, but this lacks the professed "toasted" tag I read in its description....