Lagunitas Brown Shugga

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Petaluma, California USA

Pours a dark orange with a little off white head that endures until the end. Smells of a sugary cereal. It tastes like the sweetest IPA due to the high hop content. Highly sweet. Highly hoppy. A dream.

Aged a little over a year. Pours a hazy amber burned orange with 2 fingers of pearl head that dies slow and leaves sheets of lacing. Smells of dried dark fruit, sweet malt, a hint of spice. Taste is sme as smell with a kick of tasty hop at the end. Reminds me a little of a SN Bigfoot. Medium in the mouth with ample carbonation. High drinkability and the ABV is not existant. Delicious brew.

Bottle. Translucent copper pour. Small tan head. Aroma is floral and spicy hops, sweet malts, caramel, and citrus. Taste hits first with pine and citrus fruits. Then followed by sweet malts, soft caramel, alcohol and spice. Body is chewy and a soft feeling medium. Light warmth. Ends with more citrus fruits, lighter pine, sweet malts, alcohol and caramel. Very tasty!

I thought this was a brassy big brown ale. I enjoyed the fact that it really wasn’t boring like many brown ales can be, but its very evident alcohol content (9.9% and it shows) and lots of graininess give me some reservations regarding giving it a superior rating. After pouring, the beer had a moderate amount of head. The body was tan, clear and brilliant. Aroma was grainy, with some cereal-ness, but also with a serious amount of hoppiness. Flavor was bitter and hoppy, with a lot of copper metallic-ness and also with a significant amount of malted-milk-ball cereal flavor. The alcohol presence in this beer is substantial, and definitely not concealed by any of this beers other attributes. Mouthfeel was pretty harsh…between the alcohol presence and cereal-ness. Still, despite all this, this beer is interesting, and I’d recommend it. I got this 12 oz bottle from 3 Cellars in Franklin, WI.

On tap @ Coles Buffalo NY. Nice citurusy hop aroma. Grapefruit hop abundance here. Sticky sweet brown sugar. Alcohol nips at you a bit.

Hoppy and brown sugary....enough to make up words! Copper casting call, malts are ample. 10% subdues the actual taste a bit and it takes a bit of swigging around on the palate to bring them out. Semi fruity like aftertaste. well done.

Sweet strong and heavy body. Nice little head. Amber copper coler, strong aroma of malts, hops and sugar. Nice and balanced but strong.

Draft. Medium brown body, mild hops and brown sugar in the nose. Mild bitterness, brown sugar dominates the flavor, some hoppiness, sort of weak flavors for a 10% beer.