Tap. Recommended to me by someone I was talking with at the bar. Wow, I would have never thought to try this. Not your typical APA, not a typical pale ale for that matter. Pours a nice deep straw color, decent foamy white head. Smells nice and hoppy. Beer has a wonderful, big juicy taste. A while since I've had a fresh beer that was not dry. Lots of oranges with some sweet grapefruit and a nice crisp hops bite. Medium to full body. Has a lightly dry caramel malt that adds a wonderful balance. Again, great texture and good body really make this excellent.

On tap in house. Beautiful golden amber appearance with a big white head. Slightly cloudy. Smells of hops and slightly acidic, maybe a touch of brown bread and alcohol? Has a wonderful opening flavor of very sweet malt balanced with a nice bitter alcohol flavor. Dries out somewhat, but this is still a sweeter rendition. Finishes with a creamy almost doughy malt flavor with some extra barley touches. Being brewed only a few weeks ago and fresh on tap helped this immensely. Finishes smooth and does not thin out. Flavor is complex but not terribly lingering. Could use some more depth in the malt; this isnt a dry oktoberfest, but Ive had better.

Pours the usual, amber with some lighter golden hues, and a small head. Smells only mildly hoppy, not much else. Starts out slightly hoppy with a twang of bitterness, but some very sweet malt, maybe too sweet for this style, comes in to play. Body holds up though, decent medium body and ends on a slightly bitter note. As it warms, there is a true hops flavor comes through, with a soft creamy texture. Good, but fairly laid back.

Cask. Great dark brown thick color. Small amount of head. Smells very sweet, with some fruit and raisin flavor. This beer is way too weak. Granted this is a lighter style, but it has a watery, soft texture and the flavor thins out way too much. Notes of raisins, figs, some cherry. A weird medium acidic malty taste to the body. Finishes with some brown sugar. Maybe Im just spoiled after trying Bells 5000 last weekend, but this dosent add up. Smoke flavor too muddled with a very sweet flavor.

Medium brown, with some orange/brown waves. Nice light yellow head. Aroma is promising, sweet caramel and candied apples. Pours on the sweetness, to be sure, but I think the higher abv saved this one. Being a big fan of dubbels for some reason, I really enjoyed it. I thought it had a decent yeast profile on the finish, though the texture was a bit sticky. Had some decent banana esters and yes, there was plenty of bubblegum, though the caramel malt prevented it from drying the flavor out too much (still quite dry though). Still detect problems of a wateriness on the finish, as I have with most of Dragonmead's brews.

Cask. Pours a nice full brown orange with a little bit of white/tan head. Not overly clouded, but has lots of sediment floating around. Begins fairly malty and quite sweet, with a good amount of honey. There is an awkward transition from malt to hops and the finish, while there are some bitter flavors is still predominantly malty. Medium body though has some watery problems. Good soft fruit flavors typical of this brewery. A strange sour/metallic taste is too detectable on the finish. If this had some more fuggles it would be outstanding. Muddled nutty/hoppy aroma, with some caramel hints. The 3 on the palette is being liberal.

Draught. Dark, greyish brown. Cloudy. Has a small diminishing off white head. Moderate aroma of malt and brown bread. I was blown away by this. Not your average light bodied nutty sweet ale. This had a definite hops flavor hitting you right away, there was a medium bitter chocolate malt flavor throughout. The beer had plenty of body and had no carbonation problems. The hops flavor mixed perfectly with the malt and this beer was the epitome of balance for this style. Finishes dry, as was said below, which is a nice change, as usually these browns brewed in america are either too sweet on the finish or just thin out and die. This did neither. There were clear defined hops and malt, like a perfect amber ale, but there was also a soft nutty appeal, like walnut pancakes with a tinge of chocolate. To balance this, there was a peculiar and intriguing tobacco flavor that was daring but lovely. Almost would not even guess this to be a brown. Could pass for a light porter if it had more malt. Magnificent. I can see why this has won so many medals.

Bright copper colour. Slightly earthy nose. Palate shows some pear, and a little bit of pale, vaguely toasty malts.

Yellow, with chill haze. Aroma is quite fruity (lemon, apricot, faint banana) - especially considering it was made with a lager yeast. There were also some faint husky notes. Light body. Smooth underlying maltiness at first - pity this didn't carry through to the finish, where it would really have done some good. The finish did have a hint of hallertau. Good attempt, though, considering there were a couple of deviations from tradition.

Super fruity aroma. Yellow with some darker brownish red tinges. Reminds me of pear/apple juice. . .Way too much fruit sweetness. Hardly detect any hops, maybe a touch towards the finish. Still, has a good enough flavor and tastes real enough. Did not find the spice flavors in it that I was expecting. Only medium bodied at best (probably more towards light) and a quite watery. Could actually stand some more carbonation (i think thats the first time ive said that about a beer). The alcohol is amazingly masked however, and the beer finishes smooth. I think I should have let it warm longer. Will definitely have to try again and rerate.