Barristers' Brown Ale
Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company (Downtown)

 

Barristers pours a cloudy brown color with a nice larger lacing head. There is a nutty malty aroma. The taste is much the same, mellow nutty flavors, with a malty backbone. The flavors are a bit watery, and flavors are too light. Overall it has nice flavors but just too weak.

A - Poured a burgundy or dirty brown color with a very bubbly, tan, one-finger head. It left soapy trails of lace on the sides of the pint glass.
S - It smelled of roasted malt and floral/grassy notes.
T - It tasted very earthy. A burnt toast maltiness took hold as the dominant flavor. Some good bitter kick from mild hopping, too.
M - It was soft and smooth with a fairly dry finish. A light to medium-bodied beer.
D - This is a pretty good beer. I like the effect that the cask had on it.

Cask conditioned. Slightly warmer than cellar temperature, but not quite room temperature. Or... is room temperature in Madison during January actually below cellar temperature??? Only kidding!!! It was around 60-65?F.

Not much of a head... in fact, not much more than a collar. It was poured directly from a firkin, not through a sparkler; and probably sat on the bar a bit before the server picked it up. Regardless, nice deep chestnut body and creamy collar. Very, very-fine bubbles can be seen lazily streaming upwards if you turn the glass half-cocked. Very nice! And it was quite smooth in the mouth as well, just the way cask should be. Slightly better than average lacing.

In the nose toasty and nutty malts are well balanced by grassy and leafy hops - seemingly Fuggles, but quite easily Goldings as well; perhaps a combination. Nice. Basic but welcoming.

The flavor follows the aroma, but with a little more character. Nice maltiness. Gently toasty... a suggestion of nuttiness, and perhaps even a dusting of cocoa. Floral and leafy/mineralish hops arise mid-late palate, and it finishes dry with a touch of nutty malt and leafy hop lingering. Well-balanced by a solid bitterness that lays beneath the surace.

Round. Quaffable. Nicely done. If it is indeed cask-conditioned (a lot of places are faking it these days), it's some of the best cask I've had in the past three to five years. Well worth trying; and I'm thirsting for another pint or two on my next visit (which is, unfortunately, a whole month away)!