7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

12 ounce bottle into pint glass; no bottle dating, but is a recent new release. Pours lightly hazy/cloudy deep ruby red/brown color with a 1-2 finger dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice dense soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a far amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of nutty medium roast coffee, caramel, honey, brown sugar, and toasted brown bread; with lighter notes of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, grass, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/bready/light roast malts, coffee, honey, and light-moderate earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of nutty medium roast coffee, caramel, honey, brown sugar, and toasted brown bread; with lighter notes of milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, grass, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate herbal/grassy/spicy hop and roasted coffee bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of nutty coffee, caramel, honey, brown sugar, toasted brown bread, milk/dark chocolate, cocoa, smoke, herbal, grass, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roast malts, coffee, honey, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance; and zero acrid/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from hop/roast bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, and lightly sticky/chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 5.5%. Overall this is a very nice American brown ale. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roast malts, coffee, honey, and light-moderate earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the mellowly bitter/drying finish. Great fruity/nutty coffee complexity, balanced with a classic brown ale malt profile, honey, and a fair amount of earthy hops. Not too roasty. A very enjoyable offering, and spot on style example.