Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale

Brewed By: Big Sky Brewing Company in Missoula, Montana

Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Friar Tuck's in Urbana, IL; 2011

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 5.1%

Big Sky Brewing's website reinforces the vibe I get from the bottle. What vibe am I getting? The vibe of fishing on a lake out in north Wisconsin or going camping in the middle of nowhere. This rounds up the last of the beers my girlfriend brought me, an American Brown Ale out of Montana.  

Big Sky Brewing is the largest brewery in Montana, and distributes beer to 23 states. They produce 33,000 barrels annually, and have been around since 1995. The brewery brews six beers in total, including this Brown Ale. Info on the Moose Drool can be found here: the beer is brewed with pale, caramel, chocolate, and whole black malts, and also uses a handful of hops. This should be a largely malt-forward affair with some hops to balance things out. The presence of hops is seemingly more unique to American Brown Ales, hence why this is classified as such.

Moose Drool. Yum?

This pours pretty legit with a decent creamy, tan-colored head. The head is creamy and sustaining, so while it was only about a finger's worth at pour, it is getting the job done. This is a dark but filtered beer. When held against a bright light it takes on a reddish-brown color. In lower light it is more dark brown or dark dark purple, but it isn't black. Aside from looking pretty good, this beer smells quite nice. There's a lot of malt profiles on the nose, but there is also some hoppy notes which is nice. I'm picking up on toast, some roasty notes, molasses, and maybe some grass or earthy note from the hops. 

In regard to taste, there's a really earthy note in here that balances well with the toasted note. I think it's the hops playing off the malts and it's pretty good. There's a good amount of caramel in the body, and maybe some pulls towards chocolate but nothing overpowering or immediate. There's maybe a touch of fruit: berries maybe, or subdued citrus? But it's hard to put a finger on. Overall this is pretty well-balanced, and has okay hop components complimenting the malt-based body. 

This isn't very complex, but it is light-medium and easy drinking. I would say this is fairly sweet and caramel-forward with some nice hints towards toast, roast, and an earthy and fruity hop component. The front end is carbonation and sweet caramel, which rolls into some of those hops and more malt in the middle, and finishes nicely with a malty drop-off. At 5.1% ABV this is easy drinking, and this beer is widely available across 23 states in the nation. Not a bad deal, right?

Would I go fishing with this beer? Absolutely. Would I take it camping? Heck yeah. I can't say this is my favorite brown ale though, but it is pretty good nonetheless. I can recommend it, but I don't love it.

Rating: Average

Score: 73%