Let’s get er started!
Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale…named after their Chocolate Lab. Dark brown, looks kind of like a Coke in the glass…smells like roasted malts, though not as intense as a stout. Flavors are a bit of cocoa, a hint of vanilla, maybe a little toffee. Quite enjoyable! Off to a good start.
(PS - the cocoa turns into chocolate as it warms)
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale: I am sensing a trend here…probably named after the family pet??
A totally different color. More amber in color, little to no head. I still get a hint of roasted malt, but just barely. Maybe a little butterscotch. A hint of hops on the tongue after I swallow/mixed with a touch of sweetness. A pretty good brew, I prefer the Avery though.
Sounds like you got off to a much better start than I did.
Dogfish Head “Palo Santo Marron” Pours jet black with a large tan head. Brown ale aged in Palo Santo wood vessels. Nose is dominated by roasted malts and with the color I really wasn’t sure if I was drinking a Brown ale or a Stout. Heavy and thick on the palate with some sweet caramel and tons of wood, I never bothered to check the ABV on this until my after my second sip when I was breathing fire 12% ABV and you feel every bit of it. Couldn’t finish it and have never felt that kind of heat on a beer before. Big Pass
Tenaya Creek Brewing Co. “Calico Brown Ale” Local brew pub that’s been around for probably 20 years that has recently started bottling. This was terrible. Very strange hop aroma on the nose and just watery and very thin on the palate with those strange hops rearing their ugly head on the finish. muscled it down, but you couldn’t pay me enough to drink another one.
Yep Joe, I really dislike that Palo Santo Marron. Too strong, and If I recall…too sweet for me.
That beer really needs to cellar a bit. More Barleywine than Brown Ale. Problem is the beer is fairly popular (plus they have to keep cranking it out to pay for the specialty barrels), so it hits the shelves very young. Hide one 6-9 months after purchase and it should at least be an improvement.
Thanks for the info, I did notice that the label recommends cellaring and having bought this in a 4-pack 3 of them will sit a while.
Picked up a 750ml of Mikkeller Jackie Brown while out on lunch. I’ll tr it later in the week. I figure that and Samuel Smith Nut Brown will be last.
Picked this up last night:
Will take a crack at it tonight or tomorrow.
Baird Angry Boy Brown Ale
Numazu, Japan; 6.2%
Color of dark iced-tea. Nose of dried molasses, figs & tea leaves. In the mouth, the malts are front and center but there is a bitter bite to this that is actually kind of pleasant and palate cleansing. The finish brings out the dried “sweet” flavors that are present on the nose. The bitterness also resurfaces at the very end. This is pretty good. The only drawback is the price tag of $5 for a 12 ouncer.
He’brew (The Chosen Beer) - Messiah Bold: Much like the Avery in color, pretty dark, but not heavy. Smells of toffee, brown sugar, maybe a hint of roasted malts - though less than the Avery. Just a bit lf malts, just a bit of hops…very drinkable.
Avery still on top, but this is good.
The Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale: Is it a duck, or is it a rabbit? The world may never know.
Very nice beer from a local brewery. Very very nice, medium weight brown. Lighter than Avery or He’Brew. Roasted flavor, but a hoppy character with it - not too much though. Smooooth. I like it. This or Avery in the lead. Hmmm, not sure yet.
Bear Republic’s Peter Brown Tribute Ale
This was pretty tasty with nice carbonation and a head that actually stayed for awhile. Very roasty. Roasted malt and espresso. Kind of a sweet chocolaty element as well. Really came off like more of a stout to me.
The Palo Santo Marron is a pile of shit, IMHO. Suggesting that it just needs cellaring is like saying that I just need to cellar Silver Oak, Guigal LaLa’s or El Nido and then I’ll like them. There are things that are far enough out of my preference range that the only thing that helps it is pouring it down the drain and opening something else.
Aren’t opinions awesome? ![[pillow-fight.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/3/365d4ae6de5fe0cd9e7345760c12ceae1ed5e206.gif "[pillow-fight.gif]")
I am feeling it Josh… 
…it’s alll around us. ![[tease.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/c5b32b76bebaa359b0452ae247b61189ffe5fa7e.gif "tease"){kind=small}
Brooklyn Brown Ale: A lot like the Smuttynose. A solid brew, but nothing new and exciting here. Easy going.
Pete’s Wicked Ale: The lightest brown yet. A little brown sugar, maybe a hint of citrus, a little fig. Very light. Reasonably ok.
I start the big boys tomorrow!
Ise Kadoya_Brown Ale_
Decided to visit Japan. Interesting aromas and flavor. Malty with a barley thing going on. A bit disjointed for me. Interesting but not really something I would go for. Weird sweet vegetable thing going on.
This is actually a category of beers I quite like, but unfortunately this week’s debauchery is sponsored largely by red burgundy and rum apparently, so I am saving the liver a little, sorry…
Yes and no. 
If high gravity, high alcohol beers aren’t your thing, I agree no amount of aging will help them. And doing the Palo Santo when probably expecting a more mild Brown Ale can definitely throw things out of whack. But in my eyes the wine comparison is more “I don’t like 2007 Cab X now because it’s too tannic, I prefer 1997 Cab Y”. Beers like this can show massive amounts of evolution over 2,3,4+ years that we never would have expected. I personally believe MOST bottled beers above 7%abv or so are better at least 6-8 months after bottling. And believe me I say this as someone who doesn’t apologize for the vast majority of ‘stunt beers’ out there. A problem with Dogfish Head is that they have become SO popular that their beers are consumed at a rate they can barely keep up with, so many things get put out without nearly enough maturation time.
Two classic examples; the first year D-Head released the 120Minute IPA (2002 or 2003)it was released in 750ml bottles. I bought the last one in our store, and just consumed it last winter. Generally, I really dislike the 120; for me it does for beer drinking what eating a raw Thai Chile does for fine dining, becoming more of a gastronomical challenge than something to enjoy. But with the extra age, I enjoyed it quite a bit, placing it in the category of the best aged barleywines I’ve had.
When Ommegang first started brewing, I was generally underwhelmed with what they did, finding their beers simple for what they were and too sweet. The big problem was they just didn’t have the time/capacity to allow the beer to mature at all before putting it on the market. At one point they started doing a ‘Cave Aged’ series, where they took a portion of some batches and stuck them in some local mine shafts for a year. They entered both the regular and cellared versions of Hennepin in the GABF: exact same recipe for both, but the regular finished 3rd and the Cave Aged finished 1st.
Again, doesn’t hurt my feelings in the least if you don’t like a beer, and if you don’t want to invest the time/space/money to age a few bottles because you don’t see anything worthwhile to it, I’m not here to change your mind. But the beer IS built with the intentions of evolving over 1-2+ years, and it’s hard to proclaim a beer a ‘piece of shit’ if you don’t have all the data.
These don’t close after the end date, so run through some once the liver recovers!
Pretty much all of my favorite beers are high alcohol and very rich. Things like St Bernardus 12, Rochefort 8, Maredsous Tripel, Westmalle Tripel, Delerium Tremens, Traquair and Traquair Jacobite and many more. I’ve had my share of properly aged beers. That said, I still think the beers of Dogfish Head epitomize the American “more is better” style of brewing where a style is blown out of proportion to an excessive degree, and the Palo Santo Marron is like that to me. To me that beer is hot as hell, sweet as can be and has brutal wood on it. I can’t fathom why I would like it with age, and I can’t imagine buying it again. Luckily it’s my money and I don’t have to 
I also don’t believe that wines that are hot, oaky, sweet and disjoint on release age into beauty the way so many people do, I think they just fall apart.
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Maredsous Blonde is my house pour as it gets colder, and I have a DT’s mirror in my man cave, along with about 80 or so Belgian glasses, so I am totally there with your palate. Out of bottle, I probably drink 10 bottles of Belgians for every domestic (draft is a different story). I just hate to see beer people get divisive about styles the way some of these wine conversations. But that’s the peacemaker in me; Libra, The Scales.