Brooklyn Brown Ale

Pleasing sort of mahogany brown hue both bottle and glass. Clear but nice. Not the muddy sort. Unapologetically brown. I like.

Thin white meniscus of head only, but lovely aroma of big malts means it actually smells like a big alc beer just due to the depth of thick tendrils of smell. It's almost barleywine-ish in complexity and I'm surprised it's just at the 5.6% abv.

Yumm.. yep this doesn't disappoint, it's nice and full, great lasting ground coffee characteristics intertwined with caramel notes, what a delicious experience of a beer. Roasty and flavoursome, lasting, massive taste and staying power in spades.

Perhaps not a session brown as such - although it's certainly not obtrusive. But what a great introduction to the unknown beauty of browns for the uninitiated. Could easily be upped a bit on the alcohol front for a different experience again (is there an imperial version? If not, there should be). 8.0

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 2011-12 edition

Not often you see a 'chocolate' stout coming in at 10% abv!

Also it's becoming clear upon looking at this bottle where Bootleg got their name. Huh.

Anyway, this is a big beer off the bat, nice pour delivers an oily glass presence with a low but attractive mocha head. The nose certainly starts off on choc but then meanders through a variety of raisiny imperial sort of notes consistent with an imperial stout. There is no real booze present to blast off your nose hairs for you.

Drinking this it is clear it's not the mellow, choc milk sort of experience you get from most beers with 'chocolate' in the name. Instead, this is a beer story where the chocolate malt takes a bit of a back seat. It's there, sure, but only as a soft foil to the imperial army of 6 different malts doing their respective jobs. There's a nice burnt custard sort of effect it generates that just covers the alcohol and leaves this smooth and refreshing.

So, not a very 'chocolate' sort of beer in the end, but this shouldn't be taken as too bad of a thing. It's an interesting approach to this style and one I found intriguing and flavoursome if not quite as indulgent as various other options. 7.5

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

Had heard these guys are pretty well regarded, though I'm not sure what 'East India' does differently?

Apparently, East India is the land of 'surprisingly little hop bitterness but pretty reasonable beer nevertheless' (I'll update wikipedia later). The beer has a malty caramel nose more in line with an APA than an IPA, and backs it up with similar taste. It's headless but fizzy.. just slightly too aggressively carbonated for mine but it's in keeping with the candy nature of the taste. Was surprised when I found it was 6.8% actually, tastes far more docile than that without the bittering presence of the hops.

So, yes. A fine beer and look forward to trying more from Brooklyn. 7.0