Ottos Arthurs Nut Brown

On cask at the brewpub. Pours brown-red with small, lacy ivory head. The aroma is toast, raisin, cashew. The flavor is slightly toasty with smooth caramel sweetness. It gets some nut and wood bitterness toward the finish. Not bad.

On cask at Zeno’s. Pours a muddy brown color with a thick creamy beige head. Aroma of nuts and dust. Taste is nutty with a creamy texture and a woodchip aftertaste.

Cask. Copper pour with minimal 0ff-white head. Aroma was caramel malt, some maple syrupy brown sugary notes, slight almonds and walnuts. Medium palate; not terribly complex, with flavors of caramel malt up front and mid-palate honey and almond flavor. Very smooth and drinkable.

On Cask at the brewpub. A succinct aroma of elephant shit and bear urine. This smells like a freakin’ zoo. I recognize that it arises from typical malt characters and possibly ester formation, but it has been magnified so significantly that it just smells terrible to me. Rubbery. This beer reeks. I can’t believe I’m giving a craft Otto’s beer this low of an aroma rating. Pours beautifully, with a deep rich mahogany tone and ruby corners, floating a supreme cream head above. Flavor doesn’t stray too far from the aroma, there’s an unpleasant sensation of burning crude oil, the licking of tires, and an acidic mouthful of coal. This mingles with a standard hazlenut and browned butter brown malt profile. Standard cask body and minimal hop presence. Sans the revolting malt character, this beer doesn’t carry that much complexity or flavor. And the cask sensation isn’t all the phenomenal either. It isn’t particularly drinkable nor fulfilling. Right on par with Newcastle in my opinion, somewhat unfortunately. I wish I had better things to say about a craft brewers cask brown, but this wasn’t working.

Cask (forced). Nitro forced cask ale, which is weird. Appearance is clear brown and burgundy hues at the edges of the glass, with a firm cream colored head on top. Nose is sweet malts, honey and maple sugar. Flavor is mostly toasted malts, toast bread, light honey and malt syrup. Dry like an Irish stout, so I guess the nitro body isn’t so bad. Crisp and light.