Free Range Brown Ale
Flyway Brewing Company

Draft at Flyway. Poured a dark brown color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sudsy lacing. It smelled nutty with chocolate, toffee and floral notes. Sweet nutty taste with chocolate, toffee and mild bitterness.

 

 

Can bottom reads '3058 1543'

Pours a ruddy darker brown with faint mahogany accents and topped with just over a finger of tight, fluffy dark tan foam; good retention slowly yields a thin cap, moderate collar of froth, and splotchy layering of thinnish lacing.

Aroma opens with dusty cacao meshed with molasses and burnt toffee upfront, with raisin and fig tones offering a deepening acidity; light roast and cocoa lightly accent the back end.

Taste brings an acidic dose of fig and raisin to the forefront, taking hold of the profile save for minor molasses and toffee mingling in the background; a deep malt roast shows through the finish along with a light cacao dusting.

Mouthfeel shows a light-medium body and balanced moderate carbonation; lightly chalky texture transitioning to exceptionally dry/crisp over time, with a building acidity sneaking through along the palate, though still maintaining a fair roasty quality as well.

While the acidic quality coursing through this one indicates a bit of age, the foundation of this beer remains mostly unencumbered, offering a nuanced, detailed roast of cocoa and dark fruits on an increasingly crisp, accessible body. I'm suspecting this would be even better fresher.

Pours a dark brown with a thin light brown head. Decent lacing. Smells of syrupy malts. Moderately hopped and has a burnt caramel flavor. Not too sweet. Good beer but nothing super outstanding.

12 oz can, no date, real nice price at Legacy in Little Rock, AR.

Has a light tea pour from the can forming into a chestnut brown color with a grey-beige head of 2 fingers. Nice webby lacing as it recedes. Slight reddish hues.

This nose is delicious. Tons of cocoa nibs, roasted ones in fact, with slight delicious char, caramel chews, molasses, chocolate orange, and a weird shaker Parmesan note. Slight dill too.

Unfortunately the dill note comes first here, kinda mustard-y, but it thankfully fades in favor of roasted cocoa nibs and old milk chocolate. Some light colored roasted malt, slight brownie, and slight grassy/piney/lemony bitterness. Finishes on herbal lemon brownies.

Feel is starchy and clingy - moderately so but oddly not too bad here (it's normally a quality I don't like), with a roasted dryness and very mild alcohol warmth. High carbonation.

Overall, it's a very interesting and tasty brown ale, one I will enjoy again as I have a few left in the six pack. The flavor isn't as bad as the 3.25 I gave it, but I have to balance the score out to give an honest overall score since the nose and appearance were such stunners.

Brown ale on the cusp of being an Altbier. Not bad, after a few it tasted more like Altbier than brown ale, but I love Altbier, so...

Purchased at Crest Foods, Edmond, OK on 5/4/2019. Code on bottom of can is 3058 1826. Appears to be brewed by the Flyway crew at the Blues City brewery in Memphis given the coding and the type of six pack ring used.

Appearance:
Two finger head , beige settles to a thin ring and erratic lacing, slight haze, Ruby brown color.

Aroma:
Medium toasted and light roasted malt aromas, on the sweet side for sure. Leans more toward toffee, nuts and brown sugar than coffee, molasses and cocoa. Very low levels of spicy hops in the nose. Slight note of grated Parmesan tells me this beer is a bit long in the tooth.

Flavor:
Clean, crisp and balanced. Light caramel, pecans, almonds and subtle chocolate. Not as harsh and chewy as this style can be. Bitterness is subtle and soft and not resiny as one expects. Slight old hop wax and cheese going on. Not terrible but enough to warrant a fresh re-review later.

Mouthfeel:
Medium to full with moderate carbonation. No excess astringency and the alcohol is somewhat hidden.

Overall:
Easy drinker, a malt-lover's American Brown. I don't know how old this beer is but it does not taste fresh but does not taste stale enough to be considered expired. This beer was probably a notch higher in it's prime. I can tell this is a solid recipe and is totally worthy. I recommend this beer but strongly recommend it if you can secure a fresh supply directly from the tanks in North Little Rock.

P.S. to Oklahoma beer distributors. STOP USING OUR MARKET AS A DUMP FOR OLD BEER!!! WE ARE ON TO YOU!!!

 

 

 

A: Pours a dark, nearly opaque brown color. A one finger beige head forms and leaves some lace behind.
S: Very buttery with some caramel malt. That artificial popcorn butter, diacetyle. Blah.
T: More buttery diacetyle with sweet caramel malts. That is pretty much it.
M/O: A medium body with good carbonation. Pretty smooth as well. The buttery diacetyle like flavors make this hard for me to come back to.

A butter bomb for me. This needs to be cleaned up pretty badly. Not very enjoyable.