Downtown Coconut Brown
London Brewing

Dec 3 2024

473 mL can from the brewery; there's a date stamp, but I can't read it. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a clear copper-bronze with orange-amber highlights, generating more than an inch of loose, foamy, pale beige-coloured head. It lasts for three or four minutes, settling down to a generous collar of froth surrounding a thin, filmy cap; decent lace deposition after swirling the glass. It smells of toasted coconut and rich dark chocolate, with lesser notes of molasses, toffee and nutty malts - very enticing, and I don't even like coconut all that much.

Quite palatable, but not as intensely-flavoured as the aroma might've suggested. I'm getting toffee, cocoa and toasted bready, nutty malts, with toasted coconut flavour figuring in strongly. Hints of vanilla, molasses and dark chocolate, too, with toasted coconut/nuttiness continuing into a bittersweet aftertaste with some earthiness. Light-medium in body, with low carbonation that brushes weakly across the palate, resulting in a smooth, slightly flat mouthfeel that works OK here. I finished my can pretty quickly, but this is not a beer I could drink all night.

Final Grade: 3.86, a B+. Despite its low abv, I do not really consider Downtown Coconut Brown to be a potential session beer - in addition to being a little sweet, the coconut becomes tiresome after a while. For me, the aroma is what stole the show, but it's a well-executed coconut beer that I found unique and appealing. Highly recommended to coconut lovers, but I think most fans of brown ales and dark ales will find something to appreciate here. Good stuff, worth a try.