Smuttynose Old Brown Dog

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

12oz bottle. Pours a deep mahogany with a two finger tan head. Aroma is nutty, caramel malt, bread, and a light touch of hops. The taste is sweet malts with a nutty backgroung and a slight hop finish.

Bottle. Aroma of chocolate cake, caramel, molasses, rich malt, very nice and dessert like. Flavor has some similar notes of molasses and butterscotch, but the hopping seems very out of place with little character, bitter earth and toffee notes clashing with the sweeter aspects. A bit of a grain astringency as well. Aroma was great, the rest was middling.

12oz bottle from Jason’s in Ellicott City, MD. Pours medium-brown with a medium off-white head. Aroma is nuts, caramel malt, bread, and cocoa. Flavor is mixed nuts with hazelnut standing out, as well as caramel, roast, earth, and chocolate malt. Long, nutty finish with some hop bitterness. Body is medium and the palate is very smooth. This is a great example of the style from Smuttynose.

Thanks to a kind stranger for this beer. Pours reddish dark brown with a medium sized white head. Aroma of toast, leaves, bark, coffee, and earthy/leafy hops. A little tangy on the nose. Tastes surprisingly malty with toast, caramel, coffee, leaves, lightly charred wood and leafy, earthy hops. Finishes toasty with wood, leaves, and a light amount of char. Medium bodied and drinkable, nice carbonation, creamy mouthfeel, the malt presence makes this a little stickier than typical. But I don’t mind the stick. Aside from some things in the aroma, I think this is nice!

THOUGHTS: This supposed classic needed a little balance. It was rather cloying. It tasted like what I’d expect for a brown ale, but without enough balance and the malt ramped up a little too much. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium orangey brown with a very small, off-white head. The aroma was moderate dark bread, caramel, toasted and nutty malts and slight apple and cherry. The initial flavor was very sweet and slightly acidic with a hint of bitterness; while the finish was very sweet and slightly bitter with an average duration. There was caramel, a little nuttiness, a little toffee, cookie, honey, sugar water, then a little sour fruit. The medium body was a little syrupy and then a little dry with rather fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent and ever so slightly metallic finish.

Bouteille de 12 oz. Arômes de malt légèrement grillé, de fruits mûrs et de chocolat. Robe rousse foncée, effervescence moyenne et belle mousse. En bouche, on retrouve des belles notes de chocolat et de caramel anglais et une touche de raisins. Finale plutôt houblonnée pour le style. Intéressant.

Pours a dark hazelnut brown color with slight mahogany edges when held to a light source and a huge frothy tan head that has excellent retention only slightly fading as the glass goes down leaving chunks of lacing in it’s path. Sweet hazelnut aroma with a nice chocolate malt presence, caramel and subtle hops. Slightly watered down mouthfeel with a nice amount of bitter hops up front that are quickly balanced by a chocolate/caramel malt presence. The body is way too thin in this beer and I found the flavor kind of boring. I think I’ll stick with the bigger version, Really Old Brown Dog