Foot Fetish Imperial Brown Ale
Walking Man Brewing Co.

- Nice rich clear molasses brown, almost can't see through it. Very light brown and tan head.. settles quickly to a lot of spotty foam, thick and full lace all about the glass.

- Molasses must be present.. bitter molasses, smooth caramel grain, esters, fruit, and a biscuit-like quality. Sweet honey, figs, and herbs. Raisins..

- Finely balanced malty brew. Esters, molasses, fruit currants, bready flavors. Trying to pinpoint what the flavor is. Lots of raisin, fig newton... some slight bandaid-like flavors.. slightly off.

- Light to medium bodied, touch chewy, well carbonated, and just a touch sticky syrupy.

- Overall the potential for this long brewed beer is there, it just seems that this batch is a hair off the mark. Bandaid-like flavors I hear are from chlorine possibly in the water.

The fine ladies working at Walking Man last Saturday were willing to bottle up some of their brews for me... this is from a hand capped 22 ... so I am gonna call it "from growler" ... poured into my shaped SA glass... sharing with Brenda.

Still plenty of carbonation... nice lite tan rocky head... descent lace atop a deep brown dark chestnut brew..

Toasty malts with some lighter than expected citric hops... quite a bit of yeasty fruitiness.

Flavor mirrors the nose but has some stand-out toffee notes.. hops are more floral/earthy than the nose (again minor).. quite a bit of toasty/nutty maltiness... the body is a firm medium and a smooth carbonation.. the finish is really long and fruity.. mildy citric.. but the yeasty esters are beating the hell out of most other parts of this brew.

Makes me think of a very large English Brown with some American hops thrown in just because they were laying around..

Don't get me wrong, this was not even close to a negative review... it made me think about what I was drinking... I appreciate that... seems way outside of most common style guidelines.. but this should probably not be in the American Brown category... Maybe English Brown with a big ass asterisk next to it.

I like it.. damn glad I have another glass.

I received this dark gem courtesy of UncleJedi, GatM November '08. The cool growler itself is clear so I had the opportunity to see how much yeast had accumulated at the bottom over the few days rest in the fridge. It definitely had cleared up the hue of the beer, as it no longer was as dark as night, but still opaque. Once in the glass it is a deep mahogany brown, definite hint of garnet towards the stem of the glass.

The hop aroma is very citrusy for a brown, grapefruit. There is not much info on their site about this beer, but I'm assuming they use Cascades as with the barefoot brown.

My shock is that the body on this is not very heavy. It almost is a little thin, especially for what "imperial" usually stands for. The cascades really come through. Overall, sweet and grapefruity. I would have liked a bigger malt presence, right now I could call this a brown IPA (not at all like dfh indian brown ale).

I wonder the ABV as the growler gets very close to empty, because I don't detect it but feel real comfy.


Thanks for the chance to have this sweet named beer!