McNeills Slop Bucket Double Brown

Formerly brewed at McNeills Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Brattleboro, Vermont USA

Now here is a perfect brown ale. Perfect. Hopped to eliminate the boring/sluggish brown ale qualities that I find in most, yet nicely balanced to provide something more interesting than a dogfish IBA. Got 2 bombers to take home with me too. Nice.

Beautiful dark brown color. No real head. Nice smooth malty flavor. Yum!

The color of a good, deep tan that you have been working on all summer. Smells like beer perfume "honey hops". Smooth like beer air.

Ambrée aux reflets rougeâtres, mousse pleine de bulles aux fausses allures d’un service de cask. Maltée, noisette grillées, houblon anglais réminiscent d’un thé social. Finale amérisante. En fût chez McNeill’s, 22 Mai 2005.

Bière très intéressante. Robe rouge avec une mousse en dentelle. Arômes de caramel et de houblon aromatique. Houblon vraiment bien balancé.

2005 bottle from City Market. Consumed on 4/26/2005. Pours a medium brown, copper-amber, bottle conditioned with a moderate amount of dark beige head, fair retention and lacing. Smells of earthy, musty yeast, dry toffee and heavily toasted malts. Bitter bakers chocolate and more dirty soil notes. Flavor begins with a dry, dirty, almost astringent sort of over-kilned maltiness, not sweet at all, almost cardboardy in texture. Yeast is quite present, low bittering hops and some bits of dark chocolate. As it warms and breathes, the zesty carbonation dies down, allowing a bit more continuous malt flavor to develop, and it sweetens, to some extent, with some toffee and chocolate. But I never can shake that oily, over-roasted malt astringency and the dirty flavored yeast is not terribly pleasant either. A bit watery of a body, highly attenuated flavor but, of course, a good mouthfeel as almost all McNeills beers have. Retronasal has more sweet milk chocolate than I ever found in the body, which is strange.

Bottle. Thanks to BuckNaked for this! Hazed copper with a voluminous fluffy tan head. Nose is earthy hops, light spice, hint of caramel, and raw nuts. Taste is more hoppiness with mild earthy notes, strong nuttiness, light caramel, and dry malts. Body is rather full and creamy with moderate carbonation. Finish is bitter earthy hops, light caramel, strong nuts, and lighter sweetened malts. Faint cocoa as well. Nice beer!

Brown ale with a moka head. Caramel and porto in aroma, with light hops. Smooth sweet malt with torrefied coffee beans, caramel and molasses. Nice hops in finish. Good rich body. Dec. 2004.