I had this on draft in October 2007 at the Red Star Brewfest. I met the owner/brewers and tried all their beers. This one was my favorite. I had multiple samples. It was an all you can drink affair, of course. As a brown ale fan, it’s hard to find a "big" brown ale. Newcastle is watery and muted. Brooklyn is not bad and a step up, but I wanted more. This is it.

Upon first looking at the label, I wish they had named this one "Wynona Judd’s Big Brown Ass". Oh well. The pour is ruddy, middy burnt sienna with khaki head that is rather clingy and makes great lace sheets. The aroma is heavy on the nuts, with almond, walnut, hazelnut, some brown sugar, and chocolate notes. The taste is nutty, with a lot of brown malt, plus some brown sugar hints at mid-palate and some chocolatey flavor in the finish. This is truly one of the better brown ales I have ever quaffed.

500ml graciously given to me by Kmweaver, thanks Ken. Pours a deep black-brown ruby color with a thick, foamy, and long lasting head. Mellow toffee and chocolate malt aroma. The taste is big and robust, huge toffee flavor. Cocoa and brown sugary sweet, but dry and full bodied. A nice hoppy balance adds a nice sandy mouthfeel mid-sip. An excellent Brown Ale.

Draft, Bella Vista opening: Very nice beer-- had a very smooth, very "brown" for lack of a better word taste to it. I might like a little lower alcohol content to drop it more toward session-level drinkability, but other than that I have zero complaints. And anywhere I can see a Primus reference on a beer bottle, I’m happy.

THOUGHTS: This one smells incredible. A very interesting beer. Falls kind of into that odd hybrid beer category of beers like Dogfish Head IBA or Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter. A little too carbonated though. I really didn’t notice the hops too much, so just the right amount were added to keep this very malty beer from being sickeningly sweet. My review doesn’t do this great beer justice. TECHNICLE: Bottle purchased at Grey Lodge Pub after meeting brewmaster Matt Allyn. Poured a just barely clear, dark brown that was nearly black in the glass with slight red highlights and a huge, creamy, off-white head that mostly diminished but kept a nice sheet. The aroma was moderate caramel, milk chocolate and milde coffee with light citrus hops and just a little vanilla or cola and some slight saltiness. The initial flavor was moderately sweet, while the finish was heavily sweet and lightly to moderately bitter with an average duration. The flavor was very malty but no sickeningly sweet. Ther was coffee and chocolate and finished with some citrus hops in the finish. The medium body was slightly cyrupy with very fizzy carbonation and a somewhat metallic finish. The carbonation was almost tongue numbing. So much so that it drowns out some of the flavor. So with less carbonation this might be even better.