Beer 367/365 – Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 6.2%

Purchased at: Giant Eagle Market District – Robinson, PA

What makes this beer different: Tons of nutty flavor.

Will I be drinking this again: Maybe! Very unique.

Grade: B+

11/29/2010: I’ve seen this beer on the shelves for years, but never got around to trying it. To be honest Rogue overall seems to be a bit overrated to me, although I will say their regular chocolate stout is a pretty damn good beer. Other than that I won’t go out of my way for much of their beer.

The nose is without a doubt very nutty, possibly the nuttiest of any brown ale I have ever smelled. Surprisingly the dominant flavor is a nice roasted malt, followed by a good nutty flavor. To be honest I would not have guess it to be hazelnut if I hadn’t known that was the secret ingredient. Also a bit of chocolate and tobacco like flavors in the mix. Hazelnut nectar actually ends up being a bit on the bitter end of the brown ale scale. Medium mouthfeel but a bit syrupy. Overall a pretty decent beer, a bit better than I expected.

Picture of the day: This kid is handicapable.

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Beer 316/365 – Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 7.2%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: The hoppiest brown ale I have ever had.

Will I be drinking this again: Yes this was good stuff.

Grade: A-

9/20/2010: I remember trying this beer years ago and not liking it. Probably because I did not like beer with any type of hop presence until about halfway through my journey here on 365. Its been awhile and this is one of Dogfish’s most popular beers, so lets give it a go.

Indian Brown pours out real heavy almost like a porter. The smell surprisingly is a bunch of chocolate, and hops in the mix. The flavor to me is really split 50/50 between bittersweet chocolate, and sharp biting hops. Both flavors keep each other in check in a delicious way. Very full bodied for the style with average carbonation. If I didn’t know any better I would have assumed this was a hoppy porter. Never-the-less this was a very good beer.

Picture of the day: Not exactly a funny picture, but a wow picture. If money were not an object.

Beer 301/365 – Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.5%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: A bit hoppy for a brown ale, but this is a good thing.

Will I be drinking this again: Probably, pretty unique beer in a style that is usually pretty tame.

Grade: B+

9/5/2010: I heard rumors that they were going to stop making Tumbler, anyone know if this is true? It seems like a lot of the bigger craft breweries are moving away from the brown ale style all together. Goose Island just recently announced that they are no longer going to bottle their nut brown ale. I guess their time is better spent brewing the “big beers” that have been the fad lately.

Very strong toffee aromas in the nose. The flavor follows the nose, lots of toffee, semi-woody, some earthiness there, and a quick punch of hop bitterness at the end. Lots of flavors for a beer that is only 5.5%. Mouthfeel is right about average, and a bit under carbonated. Overall I like this beer a lot, but nothing super special about Tumbler to bump it into the A- range.

Picture of the day: Good thing you took the time to make this bed for your cat.

Beer 266/365 – Brooklyn Brown Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.5%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: When someone asks me what a typical American Brown Ale should taste like, I would suggest Brooklyn Brown Ale

Will I be drinking this again: Very good for the style, and would definitely drink this again.

Grade: B+

8/1/2010: Brooklyn Brown Ale was one of the very first craft beers I ever tried. Sadly I don’t think I have had this since the years when I first started drinking craft beer (no earlier than 21 of course). Even though this only has the 4th most reviews for beers from Brooklyn Brewery, I would venture a guess that this is probably their best seller behind the Brooklyn Lager. What do you guys think? This is based on nothing other than my crazy assumptions.

There is not much nose to this brown ale, just a little bit of sweet malt. The flavor is lightly toasted malt, a bit bready, and a little nutty. A lot of “beer snobs” don’t like this beer because it doesn’t knock you over with flavor, but to me a brown ale really isn’t supposed to do that. The mouthfeel is a bit light for the style, but it goes along with the light flavors. Very drinkable and well carbonated. A very good gateway beer for your friends who might only drink “light” beers.

Picture of the day: Apparently Canadian children area bit more advanced than US children.

Beer 249/365 – Surly Coffee Bender

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.10%

Purchased at: Traded for it

What makes this beer different: The first coffee flavored brown ale I have ever had.

Will I be drinking this again: Yes I would love to. Might have to trade for it.

Grade: A-

7/15/2010: This technically is the last beer in my Surly Beer week, I almost forgot that I already drank the Abrasive Ale about a month ago. Description below.

This beer is our regular Bender beer with a cold-press coffee-brewing process. We steep 20 gallons at a time, so this beer will pop up at Tours, beer fests and special tappings. The coffee is roasted locally at Coffee & Tea Limited in Linden Hills.

I am a big fan of any coffee flavored beer, but this is the first brown ale I have had with such flavoring. My favorite coffee beer thus far hands down is Perkulator by Dark Horse. Coffee Bender might have just jumped into the #2 spot. The smell is french roasted coffee and sweet brown sugar. The flavor really reminds me of an iced coffee; coffee, creaminess, and just sweet enough. The mouthfeel from the oatmeal really helps this beer just as it did the regular bender. Overall I really like this Coffee Bender, but needed a bit more of a coffee punch to jump into my #1 spot for coffee flavored beer.

Picture of the day: Aliens and Avatar are essentially the same movie

Beer 246/365 – Surly Bender

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.10%

Purchased at: Traded for it

What makes this beer different: Smoothest most drinkable brown ale ever.

Will I be drinking this again: Yes, I will probably be trading for more of this.

Grade: A

7/12/2010: I figured I would start my Surly week off with a staple for the brewery; Bender. Instead of posting up some intro text to all these beers, I’m just going to post the beer description printed on the can itself.

Get Surly! Here’s what happens when substance meets smooth. This oatmeal brown ale defies traditional categories. Bender begins crisp and lightly hoppy, complemented by the velvety sleekness oats deliver. Belgian and British malts usher in cascades of cocoa, coffee, caramel, and hints of vanilla and cream. An easy-drinking ale with many layers of satisfaction.

Should be interesting! Oatmeal usually isn’t used outside of stouts/porters, but I am all for breaking the laws of beer. Bender smells brown sugary, and actually some coffee notes. There is a lot of flavor going on, but it still goes down very smooth. There is a fierce battle going on between sweet dark maltiness, and sharp hoppiness, but the oatmeal steps in and breaks up the fight. What I am trying to say is the malt/hop flavors are strong, but they are in perfect balance because of the smoothness that the oatmeal gives this beer. The mouthfeel is great, medium/heavy but super smooth and creamy. You need to find this beer.

Picture of the day: An elegant solution to a zombie outbreak.

Beer 172/365 – Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 12.0%

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: One of the most unique beers I have ever tasted, due to the Palo Santo wood barrel aging from South America

Will I be drinking this again: Absolutely

Grade: A

4/29/2010: Does Dogfish Head make a bad beer? Because I have yet to have one. They even make “spirits” at their tap room in Rehoboth DE. Their brown sugar honey rum is off the charts good. In fact I need to stock back up on it when I head down to OC MD next month.

There is no way for me to accurately describe the smell of this. The best I could come up with is, it almost smells like your grandmas perfume. Not necessarily flowery, but strong alcohol and some other unidentifiable “old” smells (Sorry gram I love you, but not your perfume). This is a malty malty beer, and has such a unique flavor. Again theres no way I can really describe the flavor because its like no beer I have ever tasted before, but it is woody. All I can say is the flavor is malty, woody and awesome. No way in hell would I guess this to be a 12% ABV beer. If you are getting sick of the same old beer and need to try something different, give this a shot.

Picture of the day: Stealing third base is only legal in baseball.

Beer 163/365 – Short’s Bellaire Brown

Style: American Brown Ale

ABV: 5.2%

Purchased at: Siciliano’s Market – Grand Rapids MI

What makes this beer different: Very drinkable brown ale

Will I be drinking this again: Shorts needs to start distributing to PA damnit.

Grade: B+

4/20/2010: Why doesn’t Short’s distribute out of Michigan?? Does the brewer just want to remain a small humble brewery, lack of funds, lack of desire to distribute farther? Regardless they should at least send beer to Ohio so I can head over the border to grab a bunch whenever I want.

Bellaire Brown actually doesn’t have a lot of smell at all. Honestly I am not the best for smelling because my sinus’ are terrible, but regardless I am just getting a bit of sweet malt smell. The flavor is a good bit lighter than I thought it would be, mostly sweet caramel with a little bit of chocolate going on. A little bit of hops going on too. Overall I like brown ales to be a bit sweeter and malty, but this is a good lighter brown ale. Good flavor, just needs a bit more.

Picture of the day: The first illegal immigrants.

Beer 113/365 – Short’s Brew Good Humans

Style: American Brown Ale

Purchased at: Siciliano’s Market – Grand Rapids MI

What makes this beer different: A war between hops and sweet

Will I be drinking this again: If it was readily accessible hell yes

Grade: A-

3/1/2010: I recently picked up a light box for super super cheap from meritline.com, figured it would be fun to mess with for taking beer pictures. So the next dozen or so pictures will probably be with a plain white background until I get sick of the light box haha.

Onto the beer. Its a damn shame short’s doesn’t distribute farther because they make some really good beer. The beer starts of very hoppy for a brown ale, but with some malt in the background. Midway through it was pretty even with malt/hops, and by the end the sweet malt completely took over. It was a war between sweet malt and citrus hops, with malt coming out on top. The difference in taste between the first and last tastes were huge. If I would have took those two sips seperately I would have thought it was a completely different beer. There was also some traces of brown sugar and coffee. The mouthfeel was very syrupy, almost too syrupy for me. That says a lot since I like sweet beer. Overall a very original flavor for a brown ale, just wish it wasn’t SO sweet at the end.

Picture of the day: This isn’t so much funny, but something from my childhood. Anyone remember Ecto-Cooler?

Beer 76/365 – Goose Island Christmas Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

Purchased at: Vintage Estate – Boardman OH

What makes this beer different: Its just average

Will I be drinking this again: Prob not

Grade: B

1/23/2010: Damn I just realized I have a good bit of Christmas Beer I still need to get through. Anyone else notice you get a backlog of beers pretty quick during the fall and winter months? It’s like I am a squirrel stocking up for a long cold winter or something, and beer is my only means of survival.

Overall this beer is pretty decent, but to me I want a Christmas beer to smell/taste “Christmasy.” The smell was mostly caramel malt, and a bit of alcohol. The taste was a typical brown ale, but no signs of actual Christmas type spice. Also the alcohol was not masked very well, kind of surprising for a 5.60% beer. Pretty average all around. At the price I will probably not be drinking again.

Funny Picture of the day: Sooo thats what happened to the dinosaurs?.