Bring Me Down Brown

Now as a lover of craft beer, I like to try as many small batch brewed beelz as possible. And if at all possible support my local brewers. There's a small brewery/pub in Dunedin, Florida. I've yet to take the trek down there to see it in person, but they do distribute their bottled brews here in Gainesville, FL. So my fellow band members and I decided to try a few of their brews. This particular review is for their "Beach Tale Brown Ale".

We popped the top and poured three small samples from the 16oz brown bottle. It produced a nice health head of chocolate brown foam that left a nice silky residue on the glass as it very slowly creeped down the glass. The aroma was a bit strange. It had almost an astringent smell to it. I wouldn't say it was a bad smell, just not what I expected from a brown ale brewed with roasted and chocolate malts. The color was a dark brown with some serious carbonation going on. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw that kind of carbonation in a dark brown ale.

Then to the fun part, the tasting. Each of us slowly ingested this murky brew to see what it was all about. "Awwwwww maaaaaaaan", was the first thought out of our mouths. That astringent smell led to an over-carbonated bitter flavor that bitch slapped our palates. We were disgusted. This beer had some hints of old apples, alcohol bitterness and a mouthfeel like sandpaper. Not exactly what any of us were anticipating. It was almost comparable to a super-carbonated rootbeer without any of the sweetness. Just bitter, bubbly, and overwhelmingly disheartening.

One of our least favorite beers is Shiner Bock. As my friend Dave put it, "Shiner Bock is the Mendoza Line for beers." ha ha. Good point. This Dunedin Beach Tale Brown Ale fell way below that line.

I hate to dog the local Florida brewery, but man, this beer was not good. At least that's the way the three of us judged it across the board.

I'd stay away from this one if I were you. Give one of their other brews a try. We sure will as I hope they can do better than that.