Ithaca Nut Brown

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Brown Ale
Ithaca, New York USA

I was at the brewery on a recent trip to Ithaca and sampled several ales. I found Nut Brown to be very satisfying. I bought some to take home. Draft is a little better than bottled.

Clear brown body with no head. Aroma is chocolate, caramel and nuts. Nut dominates the flavor with some caramel, hints of chocolate. Standard microbrewed Brown Ale.

Draft. Light aromas of chocolate and black coffee. Some hop spiciness in the deep background. Thin palate, and the beer is a little sweet. The flavor profile of the beer is a lot more like an unfinished porter than a Nut Brown, though there is some hazelnut presence along with the chocolate/cola/coffee. Not the assertive ale I had hoped for. From reading others’ posts, I gather this is better on tap than in bottles.

Bottle (12oz). Poured deep cola ruby with a minimal fast-fading fizzy off-white head. Aroma is sweet woody lightly roasted malt, banana flavouring, maybe hazelnut and sour wine. The taste reminded me of peas straight out of the pod, with some nice smokey roast malt - the finish is fairly quick and not sweet, but I don’t get much hops. Seems more like a smoke ale than a brown.

12 oz bottle from sampler 12-pack, sampled in a hotel room in Battle Creek, MI. Clear walnut-bronze with a touch of lasting head...herbal, lightly nutty-sweet nose, slightly flowery...bit too heavily carbonated and thinnish on the tongue, but pleasant light nutty-malty character, herbal undertones near the dry finish.

This is a wonderful ale. I live 30 miles from where it’s made, so I can get lots of it, too!! It has a great malty aroma, and pours a nice dark color. Not heavy on the hops, though. It’s definately recommended!!

Decent, but not a rich in the nutty flavor i would expect. More like hazelnut coffee beer.

a rich full bear. If anything it might of been a little too heavy for a brown. Rich dark flavor with a lot of nut. Could of used a little more hops to provide balance.