Lluna Bruna
Bodega Artesana

Approachable fruity and sour ale… More of an skewed amber effort than an English Brown Ale...

Presentation: 33 cl brown capped bottle. Somewhat elaborate label in warm colors where the silhouette of an owl sits against an exaggerated full moon. Side notes main characteristics, intent, and ingredients alongside local and organic certificates. Notes best by date 08/08/12. Served in a tulip glass.

A - Hazy deep amber pour with a rich frothy head, good retention, fair surface memory with good touches of lacing.

S - Fresh fruity sourness… Touches of citric hops…

T - Soft bitter sourness follows with citric hints, faint malty undertones…

M - Light to light-medium body, with medium-high carbonation, rather tingly pushing the brew up.

O - Rather quaffable… As long as one knows what is approaching the lips...

Notes: ...because this is nothing like an English brown ale or anything of the kind. But fair enough. They have to start somewhere and it is a good sign to see these emerging efforts from the Spanish landscape. Pity about the repetitive sour-bitter touch that permeates all their brews… with time it could be a nice identity touch. Right not it seems a bit mono-chord and hinders the diversity of their brews.

A very interesting example of an English Brown Ale. They say it's brewed with three types of malt, and the very light, not even brown color (more orange/amber) comes from caramel malt. The head is nice and they got the carbonation spot on, which is nice as it's bottle conditioned. The aroma has a lot of yeast esters like ripe plum, cherry and grape, but these disappear on the palate. The taste of pure natural peanut butter hits first and stayed with me during the whole session, but it subsides somewhat to let flowery hops in and a subtle orange taste. The mouthfeel is too light bodied, crisp and dry for my liking, but remains within the style. I prefer a richer, creamier and darker. I would suggest throwing in some chocolate malt for the color and the taste as well as some biscuit malt (or use maris otter for the base malt) to add some more dimension to the taste. I think others might really like this beer because it is quite interesting and although it mostly fits into the realm of brown ale, it's on the opposite side of the spectrum from what I usually like.