Wasatch Bobsled Brown Ale

Brewed by Schirf Brewing Company/Wasatch Brew Pub
Style: Brown Ale
Park City, Utah USA

07-Aug-08 (12-oz bottle: Free sample bottle for stewarding the 2008 World Beer Cup in San Diego, CA) Aromas of sweet chocolate, nuts, and lightly roasty malts greet the nose. Not very complex, but definitely aromatic and enticing. An entry of moderately sweet chocolate up front, and roasty malts toward the finish. Pretty nice flavor, but the chocolate and roastiness fade in the finish and are supplanted by moderate metallic and apple skin flavors and astringency late in the finish. The medium body is heavier than expected for a 4% brown ale. Medium carbonation is soft on the palate. Crystal clear auburn in color with a dense, creamy, light-tan head. Retention is solid, holding a quarter-inch layer for the entire session. Lacing consists of a ring at the top and spotty patches cascading down from the ring. Somewhat mediocre for the style, but taking into account the alcohol restrictions of Utah, this is all right.

Thanks to FlacoAlto for the bottle. Clear ruby/mahogany with a medium head. Aroma of metal, earth and cereal. Taste was the cereal and dark caramel with some nuts. Smooth, Medium-light bodied and easy. Just a touch of metal in the aftertaste. It was near textbook otherwise..

Poured a dark carmel color with a thin tan head. The nose is sweet and nutty with molasses. The taste started moderately roasty with with chocolate and malts coming next. Coffee and mild hops round it out. The finish is nicely nutty and bitter. Very nice and drinkable, just slightly above average. Defiantly worth a try. Won a silver medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup.

Bottle. Aroma of barley grains and some some caramel covered nut aroma you would get from a can put out at Christmas time on the feeding trough. Amber body with off white head. Flavor was a bit watered down with grains and bitter with some sweet malts. Thicker body with the creamy texture most of good Brown Ale’s have this may of been a good one. Blah for me.

12 oz. bottle, courtesy, guess who, douglas88! Pours deep amber brown, no haze, with a thin finger of foam in my Sam Adams glass. Foam caves in the center while sticking to the glass. Smell is your basic warm brown malt, gone slightly phenolic, but not too much so. Taste is warm and nutty, with definite roasties from the chocolate malts, giving this a slight stout character. Bitterness stays in the background so its malty aspect stays up front. Gains some peaty character further down. Nice.

12oz Bottle: Pours brown w/ ruby highlights & a massive off-white head which leaves a delicate weave of lacing behind. Aroma is of spices, roasted malts & a nice warm nuttiness. Flavor mirrors the aroma. Nice smooth brew, easy to drink.

Bottle courtesy of douglas88. Pours copper with a thin white head. Smells of caramel, some chocolate, spices, some fruit, dough. Tastes of caramel, some sweet malt and tea. Decent.

Thanks to douglas88 for sending this bottle along. Pours clear brown with a little red tint. Caramel and candy sugar aroma. Crisp, clean taste with some sugary sweetness in there. A decent brown ale.