Beer Works Beantown Nut Brown Ale

Brewed by Beer Works
Style: Brown Ale
Boston, Massachusetts USA

On tap at Fenway location. Dark brown with ruby-orange highlights. Smells like chocolate and hazelnuts. A beer full of chocolatey goodness with a very smooth palate. Good roasted flavor balances the chocolate.

This is a nice brown ale. It pours cloudy brown with small head. It gives notes of chocolate and coffee on the nose and these flavors drive into the palate with the hint of hazel nut. The finish is nice and long.

Sample at Beer Works Fenway: Pours a dark chestnut color with a medium beige head that burns off steadily. Spotty lacing. Aroma of malts and nuts. Medium, smooth body with chocolate, malt and nut flavors. Slight hops do not do enough to counter the sweetness. The finish is sweet and lingering malt. Average all around.

Draught pint at BW Fenway on 5/12/07
Should be noted that this is a slightly lower gravity version (during the Red Sox season, the beers have a higher proportion of water). With that in mind, I was a bit hesitant to try some of these low gravity dark beers, which can really suffer from wateriness/lack of malt richness. And honestly, I think I could detect a fair bit of wateriness present, but I’m quite sure the actual beer aspect was delicious. Some nuttiness, nips of roast and sticky caramel with light bakers chocolate hints on the finish. Fairly low carbonation, with a very high attenuation and low hopping rate. No alcohol noted. Large, light-tan head is impressive, as is the retention and rings of lace left down the glass. Very sessionable stuff and quite flawless to-boot. Little bit of beaniness/nuttiness carries through from the chocolate malt and seems to expose itself too much so. Some more base malt would help cover it up, but it’s understandable, given the fact that they are purposely watering it down.

Deep brown, thin off white fizzy head. Nose held some interesting notes of molasses and chocolate nut, with very soft notes of fresh cavendish tobacco and mild coffee. Flavor was truly one in the same , but just lighter with a faint hop tone in the end. Light bodied, soft carbonation, light nutty finish. Guess it’s ok for the masses....

On tap at the Salem location billed as the "Derby St. Nut Brown Ale". Porus a translucent ruby red amber with a medium creamy/bubbly light tan lacing head. Aroma of light roasted malts, caramel, some chocolate and coffee. Lighter than the flavor. Flavor of roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, with hints of some hop flavor and bitterness.

Draught at brewpub. Dark brown body with a small beige head. I can see why the “Beantown” part of the name. The beer is very beany indeed. However I didn’t find much of the advertised nut flavours. Liquid baked brown beans makes up most of the initial taste along with hints of dark cherries and fig flavours. That’s followed by some earthy and citrusy hops providing a pleasant tartness albeit no bitterness. Decent beer. Will do the job if you have a craving for baked beans but you’re on a date and are afraid of the real-thing side-effects.

on tap-pours a thick creamy retaining tan head and ruby red color. Aroma is chocolate/coffee with a sharpness-dark malt. Taste is chocolate/coffee with a sharpness-dark malt, acidic. Minimum carbonation.