Lagunitas Brown Shugga

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

Thank god for brewing mistakes, I am currently aging some of this and I suspect it should do extremely well considering its high alcohol content, barley style characheristics, and overall dankness. Almost tastier in bottle than on tap. Unique flavor in this beer and yu can almost tatste the brown shugga

Amber pour, small white head. Sweet sugary aroma. Flavor is sweet, brown sugar, candi sugar, some berries and a big caramel sweetness. A roasted touch in the aftertaste with a perfurmy sweetness.

Very hoppy scent, sweet off the top. Sugary, thick, great lace -- almost looks like icicles. Sharp flavour, very pleasing,

I had originally given a more muted opinion of this, but I tried some that I found languishing in my pantry for a while and it aged really well. This beer ages into a very nice barleywine. It has an interesting mix of strong alcohol and earthy bitterness, with some complexity and rich, musky sweetness to compensate. The bottles I had new were a little rough and a tad harsh, but after others from the same batch aged, the flavours mellowed together very nicely. The bodys is a murky/hazy light red-brown with a fairly thick light tan head leaving good lacing. It thus looks a lot like Third Street Aleworks’ Brass Parachute, which it also tastes somewhat like when aged.

10/31/05 12 oz. Amber with small beige head. Hoppy sweet malty aroma. Caramal malt sweet flavor with some contrasting bitterness.

Ugly 12oz bottle. The label looks like i could of made it on my inkjet printer. Had this dec 06, but forgot to rate it. I remember little to no carbonation, dark pour, and smooth finish. Although interesting and fairly complex, i would not go out of my way to try this again. But extra points for hiding the alcohol amazingly well.

Date: 03/04/2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RateBeer SE Gathering, 2005

clear amber with a nice tan head, sweet carmel malt aroma, rich carmel malt flavor, balanced with just enough dry bitterness to keep it from being too sweet
-------- /> Date: 03/11/2007
Mode: bottle
Score: 3.0 to 2.6

thin, sweet, and bitter,
-------- /> Date: 09/08/2007
Mode: bottle
Score: 2.6 to 3.0
Words: cellar party

rich sweet caramel and brown sugar grittyness with lots of earthyness,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Very pleasing, though just a tad too cloying for daily drinking. Not that you’d want a 9.9% daily drinker any way. The alcohol, though, is hidden beneath a veritable blanket of sweet brown sugar, caramel and toffee, with a mild bit of figs in the background. All of that would be far too sweet if it weren’t balanced by nicely understated, though by no means mistakable or forgettable, hops. I’ll drink this one again.