Honest Lender Imperial Brown
Twain's Billiards and Tap

Appearance: Opaque, walnut brown body with a full inch of long-lasting, airy, beige-hued foam.

Smell: Predominately malty nose smelling of subtle notes of dried wood bark, spiced brown sugar, burnt loaf bread, charred nuts.

Taste: Humble brown maltiness with tastes of roasted nuts, bread, and dosed with spice and brown sugar. Teeny tiny fruit hint. Earthy, woody hops with a low amount of bitterness present - enough to provide a semblance of balance, but light enough to stay out of the way of the malts. Fairly drying in the final half. Returns to tastes of nuts and brown sugar before the reasonably dry finish.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Low carbonation. Very smooth mouthfeel.

Drinkability: A good, sultry smooth brown ale and, for me, one of the better Twain's brews available. They seem to have taken Ding's thoughtful suggestion and dropped "Imperial" out of the title. Rightly so! However, the ABV seems to have remained the same, at least for now.

Comes out of the tap a dark, nearly opaque chocolaty brown with a thick, fine-bubbled head. Rich, smoky aroma is mainly of molasses and had hints of malt and chocolate. Flavor is like smoky unsweetened chocolate with tones of coffee, toffee and hops, and is mildly bitter. Texture is edgy, fizzy and lively, leaving an aftertaste of unsweetened chocolate and hops.

From Twain's website: Cask conditioning and natural carbonation allow this Brown Ale to display more of its subtleties. Don't let the light shade of brown fool you because there is plenty of flavor inside. An easy to drink Brown Ale even at 7.5% abv.

Pours a cloudy brown color with a one-finger creamy white head. The head dissipates slowly into a layer of bubbles on top and a thick ring around the glass. Lacing is pretty sticky.

Smells good. There are nutty and bready aromas with a hint of butterscotch.

Tastes similar to how it smells. Solid nutty flavors backed up by bready and sweet malts. There's a mildly bitter ending and no hint of the alcohol.

Mouthfeel is very good. The thickness is good, and the carbonation is very subtle. This goes down very smoothly.

Drinkability is very good. The flavors are mild but they all work well together, and this goes down very easily.

Overall this is one of my favorites from Twain's, and I'm glad that I had the chance to partake. Try to make your way over there and give this one a shot.