A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 10, Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale

This is quite possibly my favorite beer along with Morimoto Hazelnut Brown.  That being drastically nuttier than this and a different palate.

I'd love to see Sam Smith's fermenters which is on my bucket list.  It must be a pain in the azz to clean a square slate fermenter, but damn!, it pays off in the end with this beer!

Browns are my favorite and this beer reminds me of why.  Some come off too bitter, too dry, too sweet or too high in alcohol.  I think this is the perfect balance of all of those.  When you pour it from the bottle against the glass a perfectly nutty, malty, caramel aroma escapes toward your nose.  Of course my nose is all up in it dying to get some of that heaven to my brain.

I love the bottle.  Huge and reuseable!

With light behind the glass the beer is dark and coppery with a thin head that does leave trails on the glass from gulp to gulp.  This beer I gulp.  It's not a beer to session with, but I WILL drink this all night, hopefully remembering to have a glass of water in between each to stave of a stupendous hangover because I could put 6 down easy.  The head remains throughout the drink.  

And yes, the drink.  The drink is perfectly mildly hoppy with a creamy, malty, mildly carbonated mouthfeel that tastes exactly as it smells.  The finish is probably Kent Goldings and just WOW!  I'm not sure what the ABV (alcohol content) is, but it's not slacker.  It's most likely 6.5 or better but it's not apparent in the taste.  I served it cold, but it is fine cold or at 50.  It's at 50 now and sooooo pleasant.  This is truly a pleasure to drink.

I have actually seen this beer on an episode of "All Creature's Great and Small" which was filmed in the 70's about a farm veternarian (James Herriot) in 1930's Yorkshire, England.  That was a pretty cool sighting!  Netflix has since taken that series off of streaming (I effing hate Netflix, they are so cheesey with that sh!t).  Only shite shows are streaming and if the good ones are they only have half of the season or some BS like that.  What a scam.

I digress, effects of my favorite beer in the world!  It definitely gets a 10!  (I'm going to have to learn how to truly score a beer soon)

Hey, you have a great night and try to get yourself out to FKD Ave. and Knights Road to the Craft Beer Outlet.  I went and spent a good bit o' cash tonight there (not nearly enough) and got almost a month's haul of brews for the blog.  I got 3 from Weyerbacher, which I haven't tried yet and am champing at the bit to give them a go!

Shaka!

-Fish