Pandan Brown Ale
Northwest Brewing

 

Great taste, fair head, poor visual, but your want to drink your beer, not look at it.
Excellent with Chinese food, tempura, and BBQ. Must be kept cold, so use a frosted mug, and I usually keep mine in the freezer, upside down with extra water in the bottom base, so the mug is colder for longer

 

A- pours a deep reddish-brown color w/ a thick off-white cap tahat dissipates quickly leaving a decent lace in my nonic

S- smell is mild, a bit of metallic grain, some sorta rotting fruit leans toward an earthy musty almost moldy note overall

T- taste is a bit acidic and contains that same "sweet mold" fruity floral note, some caramel/toffee bounces around with nuts but this one starts off big & drops off quick leaving only a slight puckering dryness in the finish

M-a very dry brew, the mouthfeel is much lighter than a 6% should be, plenty of co2 may help that

D- actually pretty darn drinkable, it's gone before you know it

First, gotta love getting a quality micro bomber for $3.49 for a bomber ($3.49! nice and affordable). I've never heard of Pandan leaves, but the gentle, yet exotic note it adds to this beer is quite enjoyable. Pours typical brown ale brown, thick, frothy and retentive khaki head, leaving ample fine bubble light sheeting and then loads of spotty lace. Nose is malty with a hint of asain spice ( I suppose its pandan leaf, but not sure), smooth and malty, with sweet medium dark roast malts in control. Interwoven is the aforementioned slight asain, herbal note. Nicely done, quite drinkable and enjoyable.

Thanks to SeaBass for this one.

A: Pours a light brown hue no real head. No retention or lace.

S: Tons of sweet malt aroma. Mostly brown sugar, with hints of caramel and toasted malt.

T: Malty malty goodness. Bold brown sugar, caramel, and light roast. Hints of nuttyness with a dash of earth.

M: Light in body, smooth, with light carbonation.

D: Easy drinking, pretty tasty.

This beer was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting too much since I have a few of their other spiced/flavored beers and was never too impressed, but this one had a nice combination of flavors and actually worked quite well. Appearance-wise, it poured a deep brown and actually had some great lacing as I polished it off. Aromas coming off were fairly mild - roasted malt being the most prevalent, and some sugary caramel as well. Flavor actually was nicely balanced between the roasted malts, nuts and the touch of sweetness. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and moderate carbonation. Drinkability is quite high actually - between the pleasant taste and low ABV, at least on-tap, I could have a few of these easily.

The beer pours a translucent brown color with a thick frothy offwhite head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is decent. It has a nice roasted malt scent along with a bit of chocolate malt sweetness. Apparently, there is a Pandan leaf aroma as well, but I'm unfamiliar with the plant. The taste is average. It has a weak, roasted malt flavor with some herbal character as well. The palm sugar adds some unique character, but I'm not sure it's a good contribution. The mouthfeel is fine. It is a medium bodied beer with adequate carbonation. These guys certainly create some interesting brews. This one is quite drinkable.

Appearance: pours a clear dark amber / almost brown color with a one finger head.

Smell: malt sweetness and some hint of earthiness provides a very mellow aroma.

Taste: nice malt profile with caramel tones, hint of toasted nuts, and a mild bitterness.

Mouthfeel: crisp to start, smooth and lightly dry at the finish. Very brief aftertaste here. Medium bodied beer.

Drinkability: this was an easy to quaff beer. Nice flavor profile keeps it interesting for several glasses.

Pandan Brown Ale a rusty brown color with a fizzy head that is sort of loosely packed together. Sort of reminds me a bit of cola.

Aroma is caramel and brown sugar, I still don't really know what the aroma of pandan should be so I am not sure I can pick it out. Overall the smell of this beer is rather bland and reminds me of Newcastle.

The flavor profile of this beer is pretty much that of an average brown ale with some sweeter than average components. Its definitely got some brown sugar stuff going on and a very malty finish but no real complexity. I wish the pandan offered up more so that I could brag about how much I enjoy pandan and people could assume I know a lot about its use in cooking but alas that is not the case. Nonetheless I respect the brewery for doing something new and innovative.

Unique in many ways, the beautiful color and slightly sweet nose gives you a good presentation of what's to come. Pandan leaves and palm sugar lent them selves to a lightly sweet and nutty flavor. This brew would lend it's self well to spicy Thai, and heartier meats. Stay away from aged goudas and sweetness

Appearance: Pours an ice tea brown color with a thick head that leaves a few splashes of lace

Smell: Nuts, palm sugar and cocoa tones, with an hay and wood aspect that I will chalk up to the pandan leaves, not having a very good idea what a pandan leaf should smell like

Taste: Earthy, at first, with a developing palm sugar sweetness that is accompanied by underlying cocoa and fruit aspects; after the swallow, the nuts, hay and woody herbal (pandan?) flavors enter the profile, adding a balancing element; the finish is dry and woody

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation

Drinkability: Glad I had a chance to try this again as my first experience was with a bottle that soured

Part of our shipment from Liquid Gratitude. Beer was a deep brown with a slight haze; head was low. Aromas were earthy and dark, musky. Flavors of dark sugars, some earthiness, some spiciness in finish plus some exotic flavors. Body was light and carbonation was good. A drinkable beer, however not a session beer. I think it would go well with food.

Pours a chestnut brown color with a sub-par off white head that settled into a very small ring, has a flat appearance. Has a bit of a nutty and sweet aroma, nothing too distinct. The taste is nutty and sweet. Not much depth to this brew, no real malt character and I don't seem to pick up any of that pandan leaf. Has an enjoyable flavor but seems a tad shallow. The feel is light to moderate with fizzy carbonation; finishes sweet, tad dry. Yes it is brown in color and does have some nutty flavor but lacks the soul of a brown ale. The palm sugar is a nice touch and adds to the drinkability

I,m not sure this one is up to snuff. The colour is a kinda nasty brown shade that has lots of unfiltered stuff floating in it. The nose is malty and kinda sugary. The taste is the traditional malty notes you expect for the style but the sweetness of the finish is slightly cloying. The mouthfeel is on the thin side and after half a bottle I found the beer to be taxing on the tastebuds.

Bottle reviewed on 4-17.

Pour dark into pint glass, with quickly evaporating off-white head, leaving ring of carbonation around edges. Smells pretty decent, sweet with hints of pandan and plum. Taste is pretty sour and hardly impressive; not much special to it other than the pandan leaves. Feel pretty mediocre and leaves a bad taste. Still smooth and drinkable, and not terrible. Something I wouldn't terribly look forward to having again, but also something I wouldn't hate consuming if it were provided to me.

pours a dark mahogany with a medium size khaki head, some lacing.

smell is of plum, hay, brown sugar, some nuts, and spice.

taste is sour, grassy, a strange taste in the back, and some spice, ends dry and leaves the mouth sour.

overall a very strange brew.

Darkest russet with borders of orange-bronze. At least the beer looks dark brown when not backlit, which is more than can be said for most brown ales. The golden ecru colored cap is on the small side and doesn't have outstanding texture. It's almost featureless as it melts and leaves no more than a few token sheets of sudsy lace.

With the addition of pandan leaves and palm sugar, the nose was bound to be interesting. It's also abundantly aromatic. The base brown ale smells rock-solid and is complemented by a sweet, earthy, exotic aroma that is impossible to describe accurately. For me, anyway. If it works as well on the palate, we'll have a winner.

Pandan Brown Ale is good beer because it stays close enough to the brown ale blueprint to be recognizable, while adding a twist that is both delicious and is different from anything that I've had before. I love Thai food (which uses pandan leaves on occasion), but don't really recognize the flavor.

The grain bill consist of crystal, chocolate and honey malts. There's almost a doppelbock-like dark caramel vibe that supercedes any sort of chocolate or coffee flavor. Cocoa nibs appear as the beer warms, as does a sugared pecan nuttiness. Modest hop flavor and bitterness (Galena) keeps the malt sugar and palm sugar sweetness from taking over.

The mouthfeel isn't too shabby given the style and the ABV. However, I need a little more substance and a bit of creaminess to grant the next highest score. More malt and more bubbles would have helped.

Laughing Buddha Pandan Brown Ale is one of those beers that tastes good and is great fun to drink because it's so all-fired different. Far from a gimmick, the addition of pandan leaves makes this ale stand out from the crowd and makes it a worthwhile purchase.

A - Clean and clear dark brown in color. Bright violet/ruby highlights when held up to light. Big, foamy light brown head. Slowly fades but leaves very little lacing.

S - Nutty aroma dominates with some roasted malt mixed in. There is a unique smell mixed in as well that I do not recognize at all. My only guess is that it is the pandan leaves.

T - Rich nuttiness initially with a nice touch of sweetness. The same smell I could not recginize is present in the taste, but not as dominant. Still guessing that is the pandan leaves.A nice earthiness is present throughout providing good balance to the sweetness.

M/D - A little thin on the feel, but still a good feel. Easy drinking.

An interesting brew, but the pandan leaves arent really my thing.

Cola like with creamy small head that leaves scattered lace.

Smell is an assertive, acrid nuttiness that is way to strong for me.

Taste is, whoa, even more of the same, amplified. Yuk, this is not something I wanted to work through, the deep roasted nuts are to strong for me. This reminds me of some kind of weird flavored Jone's soda, and is probably the worst tasting beer I've ever had, at least craft beer.

Mouthfeel is thin and crisp.

Drinkability was terrible, I didn't even bother with more then a few oz. of the bomber, which was luckily only about $4.