Twice in the same day, keg at Shinshu Sake Mura and handpump at Gremlin. Smoky and brown... Quite high maltiness, bit of cocoa, smoke in the aroma, and little bit of meatiness in the taste too. Lots of caramel, but further down the smoke and meat gets stronger. Nice, but maybe not quite for me.

Bottle from Yamaoka. Smoky Brown 6.5% Served in a snifter it poured a deep cola brown verging on black with a thin fizzy tan head. The aroma is mildly smoky with a sort of chocolate coffee crisp like note to it (it’s a chocolate made with wafers). Medium bodied with a prickly mouthfeel. The taste is quite interesting: biscuit, mocha, milk chocolate and the black patent malt give it some of that characteristic acrid edge but so deflty done it is right on the edge of being too much. The deScription says it was hopped but looks like it has moslty dropped out. I liked it.

Tap at bungalow. Dark brown with orange. A bit muddy. Nose of smoke, some chocolate, a bit of caramel. Flavor is smoky, coffee, some peat. Not so special and a bit too medicinal and peaty.

Bottle from Le petit L′ouest in Shimokitazawa. Pours a hazy brown with a small head that dissipates fairly quickly. Light smoke aromas with weed-like hop notes and milk chocolate. Feels light almost like a porter rather than a brown ale, with dry and roasted cacao notes. Dry finish without much malt character or smoke. Enjoyable though. --- Beer merged from original tick of Smoky Brown on 05 Dec 2015 at 21:23 - Score: 7