He'Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale

Brewed By: Shmaltz Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from the 2012 Holiday Gift Pack bought at Binny's in IL; 2012 

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 5.5%

Reported IBUs: ?

Continuing with the He'Brew 2012 Holiday Gift Pack...tonight I'm going to try to knock out two brews. So consider this part one. About He'Brew:

He'Brew is part of the Shmaltz Brewing Company. The Shmaltz Brewing Company has two lines of beer: their He'Brew The Chosen Beer, and their Coney Island Craft Lagers. Shmaltz Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeremy Cowan in 1996. The company previously contract brewed most of their beer through the Mendocino Brewing Company, while operating a small brewery in Brooklyn, New York. After 16 years of having their beer contract brewed, the Shmaltz Brewing Company opened its own New York State microbrewery in Clifton Park, NY. The new location features a 50-barrel brewhouse, with 20,000 barrels of annual capacity, and began production April/May 2013, officially opening July 2013. The company is known for its innovative beer, eye-catching bottle artwork, and sense of humor. For more information, check out the Shmaltz website HERE. Don't be a schmuck!

Looking at the Genesis/Messiah page, you can see that the Nut Brown Ale is brewed with Specialty 2-Row, Carapils, Dark Crystal, Chocolate, CaraMunich 60, and Kiln Amber malts; this also uses Warrior, Cascade, and Liberty hops. Clocking in at 5.5%, this is within the Brown Ale range. There doesn't appear to be any catches to this, so let's see how this stacks up.

He'Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale

Shocking! This one pours like a typical brown ale: you get a brown/ruby red body, and two finger's worth of bready, thick, tan/brown head. In bright light, this beer is an orangeish/brown color, with a pinky of khaki/tan head hanging around. This one looks to be transparent, and you can see a ton of carbonation cascading upwards in the form of small bubbles.

The aroma on here is mild nuttiness, big toast, some caramel, chocolate, and molasses, and some hints of dark fruits (plums/grape/cherry). 

The taste features some mild nuttiness, hints of pine sap, maple syrup, some toast, and some caramel/molasses sweetness. You get some nice toast/bread on the back end. There's also a hint of meat/smoke, reminiscent of a Smoked beer.

This one is super light, and pretty thin. I'd call the mouthfeel light. Tingly carbonation is strung along the way, and this is pretty smooth and refreshing. This is a drinkable style, and it shows at 5.5%. Palate depth is just okay for the style, but complexity is pretty nice. Up front is some toast and pine sap/light hops; this gives way to some bread, toast, nuttiness, and some more light hops; the back end is toasty, with trailing smoke. Lots of mild sweetness abound in this.

Rating: Average (3/5 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. This is pretty much your standard Brown Ale, with some nice balance and bready kick. The mouthfeel is a bit thin and light, but the tradeoff is that this is super refreshing. You could pair this beer with bar food, lighter Mexican food, ribs, chicken, whatever. This one would work best in a 6-pack format.

Random Thought: And now for ///drumroll/// part two!