Great Plains Brown Ale
Two Wolves Brewing

 

 

 

Poured from a can into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a dark mahogany brown with little light transmission and a half finger light khaki head with good retention and light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, nuts, cocoa and a hint of coffee. Flavor is dark toasted malt with a slight char, nuts, coffee with a light earthiness. Finishes with coffee and lightly charred malt. Medium bodied with sharp carbonation, perhaps a little overcarbonated. A nice classic brown ale with good cocoa, nut and light coffee notes. Flavors are interesting from start to finish. No new ground is broken in the style, but solid and flavorful. Nicely done.

355ml single can - the second offering from this relatively new contract brewer to arrive in Alberta's bottleshops of late.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, very dark orange-tinted brown colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and fizzy tan head, which leaves some wafting smoke signal lace around the glass as it slowly and evenly subsides.

It smells of roasted caramel malt, an indistinct nuttiness, bittersweet cocoa powder, a further damp ashiness, and some very plain earthy, leafy, and floral green hops. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, pithy bar-top nuts, thin mocha, free-range char, and more understated earthy, musty, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly active in its swirling frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and mostly smooth, maybe a suggestion of ash marring the surface sheen here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and nutty essences lingering on.

Overall, this is a serviceable instance of a brown ale, the malt the obvious mainstager, in all its nutty glory. Simple, and easier to drink than write about, which seems to be what this outfit is going for in its initial offerings. I look forward to trying some more robust brews in the future.