Brown Ale

Orginally posted on November 4, 2011. First post ever!

If you are not familiar with Abita beer then please familiarize yourself with them now. Every season of the year Abita brews a different harvest beer. One for each season spring, summer, fall, and winter. This particular seasonal harvest ale (fall season) is brewed with pale, Munich biscuit and caramel malts and Willamette hops. Real Louisiana roasted pecans are added in the brewhouse. The Abita brewery uses natural spring water from the Abita Springs. This ale has ABV (alcohol by volume) of 5%. This harvest ale pours a nice orangey amber color. The clean white head fades away quick. This Abita has a nice aroma of fresh pecans with a slight caramel scent. On the first taste, you get a nutty flavor followed by a buttery creamy taste. Aftertaste you’ll find it to be creamy and rich almost binging your grandmother’s nutty-sweet pecan pie to your mind and a smile. It has a smooth aftertaste,  Its good! I love this one, it grew on me and I will buy it again. Abita does a great job with a lot of its beers, I can’t say the same for their brewery tour. That’s a topic for another post. So grab one now before its gone and share with family friends, and loved ones! Cheers! Please Drink Responsibly!

One reason for buying beer for me is the label, it can depend on how neat and/or interesting it is. Another reason for buying a beer could be the style of beer or the brewery. Well I bought a Fullsteam beer recently because of the fact that it is a Fullsteam beer, the label looked very interesting and I like the style. I bought Fullsteam Working Man’s Lunch, Everyday Chocolate Ale. 5.7% ABV. Fullsteam is a local North Carolina brewery in Durham, North Carolina. The name of this beer is a tribute to the original working man’s lunch a Moon Pie (big chocolate covered crusted cookie/pie with marshmallow inside) and a cola. Working Man’s Lunch is a chocolate brown ale, brewed with chocolate from Raleigh’s Escazu Artisan Chocolate and Weizen Yeast. Sounds interesting. Working Man’s Lunch pours a brown color with dark ruby brown edges and a two finger white head that fades nicely into some bubbly lacing. I found no amounts of light coming through with a little carbonation bubble, not to say this isn’t carbonated. The aroma is sweet with hints of chocolate and fine yeasty notes. I didn’t get much Weizen aroma from this. Working Man’s Lunch has a nice sweet taste in front of nice light cocoa/chocolate flavors. I found a little cola flavor in the middle that was the slightest bit odd but not too bad tasting. I was looking for so weizen like flavors and found none, no banana notes here. But I did get a yeasty flavor on the end that was okay But as this beer warms it becomes more and more of a brown ale. The mouthfeel is high medium and sweet, and Working Man’s Lunch finishes nice silky with a sweet aftertaste that lingers enough for you to really savor Working Man’s Lunch. Overall an interesting brown ale, so I give this a B-.  I didn’t really find any traces of the Weizen flavors here at all, and that brought it down a little, but other than that it was good as a brown ale. Not really overly heavy or thick. I would recommend Fullsteam’s Working Man’s Lunch. So go out and try it! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!

This short review was originally posted on December 27, 2011. So many beer reviews ago! 

Shalom! Yeah, this one sounds Jewish and your right it is. This He’Brew Messiah Bold, 5.2% ABV. Now it’s called He’Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale, comes from the Shmaltz Brewing Company in Saratoga Springs NY. This beer is a  rich and robust dark brown ale. It pours a nice inviting dark brown color with a nice beige head that really sticks. This beer is pleasant on your nose. Messiah has a bold scent of nice yeasty bread. On taste, this beer has a faint sweetness that is almost too faint to taste and has a bold bready taste that’s good, rich and creamy. Messiah has a nice creamy sweet finish that tells you to have another sip or two.  It is indeed a good brown ale. I like this one, it’s good, but I did not think it would be that good. It is that good! Yes, I do think so. I only bought one 12oz bottle for a good taste test, and it passed and it is definitely an A+. I suggest you try this one, get a few and share with your friends, family, and loved ones. It is great! L’CHAIM TO LIFE! Cheers! Please drink responsibly!

Fall is here. Well, I guess that’s true but it sure feels like summer in most places. But here is a fall beer from the Starr Hill Brewery in Charlottesville Virgina, Last Leaf Maple Brown Ale, 6.1% ABV brewed with real Virgina Maple Suryp. Last Leaf pours a dark amber brown color with ruby brown edges and with a one finger thin beige head that quickly dissipates that gives off sweet maple vanilla notes with a syrupy sweetness and has a taste that is thick with vanilla, maple syrup with a slightly bitter note on toward the back of the mouth to it that sort of brings Last Leaf down a bit. Last Leaf finishes with maple vanilla notes and gives a very bitter yet sweet aftertaste that lings for just a bit before fading into a thickness with a fuller mouthfeel. I went into this beer thinking this should be good, but I was underwhelmed, this beer was not as good, I give Starr Hill Brewery Last Leaf a C-. Some of the flavors were somewhat good but not good enough. I would have like to have a creamier vanilla and maple flavor to this Last Leaf and not any bitter notes to it. That would really help make this beer something good. But it wasn’t what I like in a brown ale. Don’t go for Starr Hill Brewery Last Leaf, please. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!