12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA.
Deep brown pour with a nice head. Not very good retention and no lace. Body has a few orange and rust colored highlights.
A barrage of sweet, bready malts in the nose and not hint of bitterness of alcohol.
The tastes still keep the malt based at the forefront, but add some alcohol and a little bit of bitterness to back up the idea that this is in the American end of the Brown Ale spectrum. Malts hold up well, and the alcohol never gets out of control.
In fact, the beer is pretty much EXACTLY what one would think of if you had to merge the “Americanize” and “Imperialize” a brown ale, so in that respect it’s pretty much on the money. The debate as to whether a brown ale benefits from more alcohol and more hop character is a completely different one and perhaps left for another time.