Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown

Brewed by Deschutes Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Bend, Oregon USA

On tap at Vino’s in Roseville, CA. This dark brown ale poured with a decent off-white head. The flavor is slightly flat, but it is fortified with plenty of roasted malt. There is a slightly bitter finish. Overall, a very drinkable brown ale.

Bottle. Very dark, amber edging. Full head. Good strong malt aroma. Full bodied. Flavors range form nutty to chocolatey with hints of coffee and caramel. A bit smoky. Good.

Nutty, toasted malt with a somewhat sweet earthy character. Really seems like toasted, plain white bread in a glass. Simple, thin and smooth. Nice but a tad too boring.

12oz Best By 06/29/07, thank you Aaron (Saarlander). Pours a hazy reddish brown with a two finger beige head which stuck around for the duration as a thin head. Aroma of mixed nuts, light dark chocolate, sweet caramelly malts, and a bit of earth. This tasted just a hair sweeter than I would have liked. That said, it wasn’t cloying by any means. Milk chocolate and caramel were the dominant flavors, though the nuttiness did pick up on the finish. Low bitterness (2 out of 10). Moderate prickly carbonation with a light to medium body. Inoffensive with a fair amount of flavor. A pretty decent brown.

Good big nutty aroma. Dark orange / brown color. Really good nutty pecan flavor. Sort of dry palate but expected b/c of the pecan flavor and seemingly extra hops. As far as brown’s go, this is good. Another good beer from Deschutes.

Pours a very hazy deep amber/brown with a thin diminishing off white head. Aroma is yeasty, doughy, light nuts, moderate toasted malts, and a slight caramel sweetness. Light caramel sweetness, light oxidation, toasted nuts, burnt potato chips, and a lightly bitter herbal finish. Decent Brown Ale overall.

It’s terribly hard to get excited about Brown Ales, and all the more challenging when the beer is named after a carpenter’s tool. But after having the Buzzsaw Brown I was more than ecstatic. I didn’t find a high quality beer, but I had found a high quality brown ale; a rare treat indeed. The body is a deep brown-maroon, rich and muddy, with a less than beautiful lemon snow cone head which, shortly after the pour, fizzles down to a pond scum-like consistency. The smell is considerably better, but simple. Coffee and chocolate stuffs the nose with a deep and rich consistency. It’s strong, but not overwhelming, and I can’t keep myself from coming back for more. The Buzzsaw’s aroma proves that even a facile smell can be addicting. Meanwhile the flavor proves its worth, both by being different from the smell and by being far richer than anything I would expect from a brown ale. It is somewhat thin, but diverse. Apple and cumin initiate the tongue, tasting a bit like a pork marinade, followed by dabblings in jerky, soy sauce and poached pear. It makes for an interesting flavor palate, again something that would be found fresh off the grill, but it is poorly balanced. The pear is too weak and the cumin too strong, and everything in between feels scattered and confused. At least the mouthfeel is unexceptional, contributing nothing to the rambunctious flavors wildly bouncing around. A little focus would do this beer a lot of good, but as it stands it remains one of the most flavorful and interesting brown ales I’ve had to date.

On tap at Churchill’s. Clear medium brown color with an off-white head. Malty aroma. Silky palate. Tastes of nutty roasted malt with a smooth finish.