Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale
Smuttynose Brewing Company in Hampton, New Hampshire, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Black / Cascadian Dark Spring|
Score
7.29
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There’s no denying that IPA is king of the craft beer world right now. The style is getting so popular that even the big brewers are attempting their own versions, while IPA sub-styles, like session IPA, double IPA, white IPA and black IPA, continue to be created and defined. Brown IPAs combine the caramel and nutty-biscuity flavors of a brown ale, with an American IPA-sized does of hops; it’s pretty straight-forward, but pretty delicious.
On to the beer...Durty is a big beer (8.4% abv, 55 IBU) packed full of big hops. We’ve used Polaris, a new German high alpha variety for bittering, followed by American hop icon, Nugget, for the flavor additions and finally, a boatload of Simcoe post-fermentation for dry-hopping. The malt selection isn’t too different from Old Brown Dog, but it’s a bit heavier on the nutty character and dark cocoa notes.
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bottle 355ml @ Hotel room, Hotel Lord Berri, Montréal, QC
Pours hazy brown with a off-white head. Aroma has notes of malt, chocolate, caramel, cocoa citrus and grass. Taste is medium sweet and medium bitter with a long malty, caramel, chocolate, cocoa and bitter finish. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Nice crisp brown coloured body that is slightly clear at the bottom, with a two centimetre tall tan head. Aroma of pungent resinous hops, pine, alcohol, roasted malt, belgian yeast and somehow even more deeply pungent hops. Medium-bodied; Deep roasted malt flavour with some nuts and earth noticeable, all with a lot of hops overhead and a good pine and grapefruit flavour. Aftertaste shows a good balance of roasted malts coupled with some bright hops and a pleasant sweet and deep coffee flavour at the finish. Overall, a nicely layered and complex beer for the style with a lot of hops (pungent, too) with a good and robust malt profile. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Total Wine in Alexandria, Virginia on 17-May-2015 for US$1,99 sampled at home in Washington on 30-May-2015.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
12oz bottle pours with a mahogany colored body that supports a thin tan head. The modest aroma offers up earthy tea, some chocolate, a bit of roasted malts and then faint somewhat vague hoppiness. The taste starts with chocolate malts and a sliver of fruity citrus and then it picks up earthy tea hops that quickly climb into resiny pine like hop bitterness. Roasted malts move forward toward the finish. This is working well.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Best by date of 06/30/15.
This was poured into a mug, thought it was an American Brown Ale. Next time, I’ll get it in a snifter, didn’t realize it was an American Strong Ale.
Anyways, here’s the rest.
The appearance was a fairly dark brown color with an off white foamy sort of head. The head dissipates to small lump valleys here and there.
The smell had a soft sweet to bitter blend of citrus to pine overcoating a rich nutty blend of roasty to sweet coffee and caramel.
The taste combined nicely the bitter citrus and piney hops to the sweet and roasty flavors. There’s a rich nutty to bitter piney aftertaste leading to a dry sweet and roasty smooth finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fairly decent sessionability about it. The carbonation seemed appropriately styled for me. A nice lingering bitter roastiness rolls over my tongue.
Overall, I say this was a pretty good American Brown Ale, so I’m not exactly sure why it’s labeled as an American Strong Ale on here. I’d still have it on here.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Pours clear medium brown color with tan head. Aromas of roasted malt, pine, caramel, and some nuttiness. Similar flavors. Medium body with average carbonation.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Soil, clay, charred oak, very slight nail polish aroma. Hazy brown, medium yellow head, nice lacing. Wood and cherries, smoke finish. Medium body. Big, but quite enjoyable.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
How: Bottle.
Where: Systembolaget.
Appearance: Amber colour with a beige head.
Aroma: Chocolate, vanilla, some spices, malt, cookies.
Body: Full body, low carbonation.
Flavour: Chocolate, cocoa, citrus, hops, caramel.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Pours a dark ruby brown color with a small off-white head. Has a slightly roasted malty hoppy aroma. Fruity malty chocolate hoppy bitter flavor. Has a slightly roasted malty hoppy bitter chocolate finish.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
bottle - Pours dark brown and has an aroma of resinous hops and caramel malt. It tastes similar with plenty of bitterness and a tasty toasted caramel malt body. Bitterness lingers. Pretty good.