Crystal clear pour with a solid head and nice lace & retention; this looks very good.
Tasty malts are the order of the day (as they should be for a brown ale), and surprisingly (becasue this is categorized as an AMERICAN brown) the hops are reserved. Don’t get me wrong, I MUCH prefer toned down hops in my brown ales since it make sense to have a brown with malts being the dominant character, but American browns usually do exactly the opposite – this one doesn’t. Couple the fact that this has the word “Imperial” in the name, and you have a surprising lack of bitterness. GOOD! Of course to me it was infinitely better this way than as a “hopped-up” brown ale.
Despite the confusion of the styling, name and finally the tastes, it all shook down to being a very enjoyable, nutty experience. Just a TERRIBLE shame that it wasn’t 3-4% rather than 7-8%! Brown ales ought to be a great opportunity to give us a truly sessionable beer, but for the bazillionth time the boat is missed – SUCH a shame, and very tiresome. As a result, I marked the drinkability of this very tasty beer down.
So close to pulling off a great beer, like so many others it ultimately falls slightly short – ho hum. I suggest calling it an English Brown, taking the word “Imperial” out of the name and halving the ABV – then we might have a close to perfect beer.