Leinenkugels Fireside Nut Brown Ale

Brewed by Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Brown Ale
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

Bottle provided by the inevitable dm9831, carefully poured into my Choc Beer glass - Amber bodied with a short-lived head, this has an aroma of cocoa powder and sweet nutty malt. A splash of caramel is added to the flavor. Interesting. I took a gander of some of the other ratings, and it seems we’ve all been drinking different beers.

Bottle. I didn’t think it is as bad as the current percentile represents. Nice, brown ale with good malty nutty tones in the flavor. Some bite to it, worth a try.

clear copper color, small quickly disappearing white head, a little bit of lacing. nose is strongly sweet malt, strong maple syrup notes. wow! the flavor is like drinking cold maple syrup with no beerish hints. it does not improve as the beer warms. watery mouth feel, sickly sweet finish that doesn’t go away. very artificially sweet tasting; i don’t know how to clear my palate of this one. this is only the second time since i have been rating beer that i ever poured the remains down the drain (and even though i didn’t like the beer, i had a tear in my eye. oh, the humanity!). and i still have 5 bottles remaining from a sampler case purchased @ sam’s club in matteson. i’ll have to ’present’ some to cornfield and rayboy01.

Appearance: Pours a clear, appropriately nut-colored body with a smallish, wispy, white head. Smell: It’s hard not to roll your eyes out of your damn skull with the very first whiff. I had hopes for just a simple, pleasant brown ale, but, right off the bat, I get a whiff of some artificial additions and little else. Let’s discuss them in the next category. Taste: To call the aroma and taste "unique" is about the politest way to put it. Waaay back in the early 1980’s, dressed as either a ninja or a some character from "Star Wars", I’d make my trick-or-treating rounds of the surrounding neighborhoods. Sometimes you’d get the dreaded apple, the unwanted pencil, the curiously sticky handful of loose change, or even the inappropriate religious pamphlet. And still sometimes you’d get bottom-shelf clearance aisle candy that’s probably been sitting in this joker’s house for at least a couple years. These confectioneries always had that same icky taste that was sure to put a big, fat frown on any child’s face. And here I sit with a big, fat frowny-face as I’m being made to revisit that horrendous taste. Artificially sweetened, less-than-naturally flavored, vaguely nutty caramel. Just as those candies had zero trade value with other kids, I couldn’t pawn off the rest of the bottle for the life of me. No appreciable hop flavors or even bitterness. The flavor doesn’t quite dry out by the time the finish rolls around. That’ll be enough of that, thank you very much. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Not recommended whatsoever. There are many, many better brown ales (nut or otherwise) to be had out there.

Nutty to the extreme. Smooth, with a good caramel color. Overall pretty good. Not on the same level as a Rogue or Samuel Smith, but it doesn’t cost as much either. Worth a try.

Sweet with heavy hazel and maple aromas. It has a nice toasted finish that is sweet the whole way through.

In the bottle from Beertopia. Chestnut color with a white head. Mild vegetable aroma is boring. The flavor is fairly nondescript except for a blast of vanilla at the finish.

Almost no head, clear brown-amber color. Subtle aroma of nuts and malts, a hint of caramel. Medium bodied, distinct coffee flavor, with touches of coffee and malts.