Old Town Brown Ale
C'est What Durham Brewing Company

Pint on nitro at C'Est What?

Pours a clear light brown, some orange hues, thick and creamy light tan head forms, drops a nice sheet of lace on the glass, good retention. Smell is light but nice, some sweet malt, biscuit, and nuts, light fruitiness and floral, touch grainy. Taste is similar, light sweetness, some caramel, biscuit, nuts, a bit grainy, some fruit, touch of raisin, solid bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied with low carbonation, very smooth. Not bad, easy drinking session beer, I like the bitterness. Would probably be better not on nitro.

Nitro-tap at C'est What. Medium brown with foaming off white head that leaves creamy lace coated right down the glass. Creamy, malty, decent but only a mild taste and its coffee groundish taste and some malt. Rather boring and could not finish a half pint.

A new offering at C'est What, and while very similar to their retired mild brown ale, I was assured that this is a new recipe.

Truly majestic appearance - a very ruddy dark brown, almost bordering on black, with a smooth, creamy nitro head that left sheets of lace. Unfortunately the nitro subdues the aroma somewhat, but light malt notes are detectable. Very well integrated and pronouned flavours for a lighter beer. Full on malt with very limited hop presence, but a nice nuttiness duelling with rounded coffee and cocoa flavours. The nitro helps accentuate the pleasantness of this beer, and gives it a deeply textured feel instead of just cloaking the flavours in creaminess and sacrificing everything for a smooth flavourless mess. C'est What have done this extremely well, and its a prefect replacement and retooling of their earlier brew. The session strength also gets plus points from me - a veritable pocket battleship!