Brownhoist Nut Brown Ale
Tri-City Brewing Company

 

 

 

From a 12 oz bottle it pours a dark chestnut-mahogany brown, producing a 2-inch pocketed head that immediately starts to settle, and ends as a slight film. No Belgian lace. The nose suggests leather, malt, and unused band-aids. There is fresh and bright, pleasant, note to the nose. The body is medium-light. The palate is sweet and short with chocolate and caramelized rye-bread-crust notes with suggestions of hazelnuts. Unfortunately, this brown ale is not moreish. One is good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A- Brown and pours with a thick foamy head that takes a couple pours to empty the bottle. Head is a light tan and beer is an opaque reddish-brown. Head does not leave much lacing on the glass after waiting a while for it to go down.

S- Roasted, dark malt is the first with a slight nuttiness, not a strong aroma beer. Can smell the yeast on this one when you drink it.

T- The roasted malts are the first thing I notice then a slight sweet-nuttiness comes out. Bitter-metallic finish somewhat kills the end of this one.

M- Quite carbonated with a watery texture. Flavors stick to the mouth as you drink it, though it goes away in a short time.

O- Not too bad but nothing that I would really seek out. Over-carbonation and the slight metallic aftertaste are things that would influence me to not get this one again, though without them it would be a solid beer, but still not overly impressive.

 

I picked up a bottle of Tri-City's Brownhoist Nut Brown Ale today for $1.69 at The Lager Mill. I think I have had this beer before but I don't really remember much about it and since it is a seasonal I thought I should give a try while I can still find it on the shelfs, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling, that's the norm for the brewery. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks ok, but a picture of an arm of crane isn't too eye catching, but it does go with the name. It poured a nice dark brown color that had a nice mahogany color when held to the light. It had a finger and a half worth of off white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end. The color looked good but the head was disappointing.

S- The aroma starts of with a good amount of dark malts that have a pretty noticeable roast aroma to them with a low amount of sweetness and it imparts some chocolate and some slight coffee aromas that I wasn't expecting but enjoyed. After that comes a pretty distinctive nutty aroma that works well with the roasted malts and there were no hops to be found. The aroma was good and much more robust then I thought it was going to be.

T- The taste starts off with loads of dark lightly roasted malts that have a medium amount of sweetness and impart some nice roasted grain and brown bread flavors along with a little bit of chocolate. In the middle comes the nuts which impart just enough nutty flavor to hold up against the malts after that comes a noticeable coffee taste. The finish is a little sweet with hardly any bitterness and a roasty and nutty aftertaste. The flavor had more roast then most Nut Browns but I enjoyed it.

M- Smooth, medium bodied, and it had a high amount of pricky carbonation. The body was nice but the carbonation was to high and the prickly carbonation didn't go well with the roasty and nutty flavors.

Overall I thought that this was a good American Brown Ale and it had enough nutty flavors and aromas to live up to being named a Nut Brown Ale, it wasn't that true to the style with the large amount of roast but I thought it worked well with this beer and it still retained enough Brown Ale flavors to know this is a Nut Brown Ale. This beer had ok drinkability, the flavor kept my attention but I think the prickly carbonation would wear on me after a while. What I liked most about this beer was the aroma and taste, they were both pretty nice. What I liked least about this beer was the prickly carbonation, it needed to be toned down a couple notches. I would buy this beer again when feeling a Nut Brown Ale, and if you like the style I think this is worth the try. This is one of the better seasonals that I have had from this brewery, I didn't get any off flavors like some of the other reviewers suggested and if the carbonation was toned down this might be one of the better Nut Brown Ales I have had, nice work guys, this is a worthy seasonal.