Shrub Tundra
Half Acre Beer Company

 

Unknown vintage; drank 7/7/15 on draft @ Half Acre.

Opaque brown appearance.

Khaki head; almost no lace.

Roasted coffee bean notes in the nose.

Medium mouthfeel.

Roasted coffee bean flavor.

One note, certainly, but not bad.

 

9/18/18 (Chicago): $8 20 oz draft pour into large nonic glass consumed in the Half Acre Balmoral Ave. garden area. Pitch black pour, light puffy quickly dissipating off-white head. Light coffee malt aroma and taste, slightly bitter, very nice. Slightly fizzy mouth feel, thin and creamy. Very smooth drinking.

 

 

 

Whoa, that's one fantastic beer. Insanely balanced between the malts, hops and coffee bitterness and a smooth mouthfeel. Gotta love it. Probably my favorite brown ever.

 

 

 

This is a coming of age ale for Half Acre: a thoughtful rendition from the old country... but without lots of hops. Half Acre, I declare, to be the first third generation brewer to come of age. (But, let me thing about that.) Having only Had six from HA, I won't fight for that summary... but it helps me think about this beer.

Looks like a brown, but not above average. Smells like mostly sweet malt (a good sign.)
Taste gets balanced with just enough hops. (This is the "coming of age"... for HA makes its money on hops.)
Feel is dry, and a bit more sweet would leave me smiling.
OA: A well-balanced beer. HA is coming of age.

 

 

 

 

Pours a dark brown with a foamy, beige head that foams up to three fingers in height. Tightly packed bubbles with long retention. Tightly packed nitro lacing. Aroma is coffee, with bread, biscuit, and earthen malts. Flavor profile maintains coffee throughout, with bread, biscuit, and earth malts. Mouth feel is robust and thick, with a good presence. Overall, a well rounded coffee brown ale that carries the coffee notes well. Surprisingly yummy for a nitro beer.

Served in a 16oz pint glass. Draft. Nitro. Reviewed from notes.

Had on 16oz nitro tap at the Bridge View Tavern in Tarrytown, NY.

Great looking beer. Deep brown color, rich mahogany (I have many leatherbound books) around the edges in light. Ample light brown foam with excellent retention. The aroma is subdued but nicely balanced. Medium roast coffee on the nose, with earthy and floral notes. The coffee is not overpowering though, the malt also gives strong characteristics, with subtle notes of chocolate, toast. The taste is quite similar, with the coffee pushing forward somewhat stronger than on aroma. The malt and chocolate character still comes through, with a lingering bitterness on the aftertaste. A medium body, moderate carbonation, and extremely creamy, smooth texture. Dry and aforementioned lingering bitterness of the finish. Overall, this is a really nice coffee brown that I would happily seek out again.

On tap at City Beer Hall in Albany, NY.

This one pours a dark-ish brown color, with a small head, and only a little bit of lacing.

It smells quite unsurprisingly like coffee, but the coffee here has a killer aroma- waves of caramel and chocolate. There's some toffee and vanilla here as well.

The cool thing about this is that the flavors from the rich base and the coffee interweave perfectly, and it's kind of hard to tell where know begins and the other ends. There are great caramel notes from both the base and coffee, along with deep chocolate, some toffee, sugary bread, and roasted malt. It's delicious.

This has a surprisingly good body for the lower ABV. It's creamy with a good mouthfeel.

This is definitely up there with the best brown ales that I've had.