New Glarus Fat Squirrel Nut Brown Ale

Brewed By: New Glarus Brewing Company in New Glarus, Wisconsin

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Woodman's in Kenosha, WI; 2013

Style/ABV: Brown Ale, 5.5% 

Reported IBUs: ?

The New Glarus train just keeps on rolling... About New Glarus:

New Glarus is the rare, gorgeous "Midwest" brewery, founded in 1993 by Deborah Carey, the first woman to found and operate a brewery in the United States. She raised the capital for the start-up as a gift to her husband, Dan Carey, who is New Glarus' brewmaster and co-owner. Dan Carey has a long history working in the brewing industry, including an apprenticeship at a brewery near Munich, Germany and a job as the Production Supervisor for Anheuser-Busch. The brewery began as an abandoned warehouse using old brewpub equipment. In 1997, Dan Carey purchased coper kettles from a brewery in Germany. In May 2006, New Glarus opened their new (current) facility on a hilltop in the village of New Glarus. The facility looks like a Bavarian village, and is gorgeous. The expansion has allowed the brewery to continue to increase their production, and expand their operations. For more information, check out their brewery page or Wikipedia. 

The Fat Squirrel Nut Brown Ale is inspired by....fat squirrels. I guess that makes sense. Brewed with six different malts, all from Wisconsin, and featuring hops from Slovenia, Bavaria and the Pacific Northwest, this bottle conditioned beer is described as having clean, nutty notes. 

New Glarus Fat Squirrel Nut Brown Ale

This one pours surprisingly dark...like a dark brown with some red and mahogany tones. I kicked up a finger of off-white head. In bright light the beer is a semi-transparent orange color, with an amber head that is sustaining nicely and depositing some nice lacing. There's some nice carbonation rising upwards as well. 

The aroma smells like a Brown Ale. I'm getting a lot of nuttiness, some faint cocoa, a little toast and light caramel/toffee and molasses. It's a clean nose, and there's a hint of hops on the aroma as well. 

I'm getting a lot more hops in the taste, with some floral and even mildly bitter flavors coming through. There's also a ton of nuttiness in the taste, with some added toast and toffee/caramel-malt sweetness as well. It's clean and refreshing, but quite sweet. 

This is like your typical Brown Ale...the palate depth is great, and the boutique of flavors is good, but the complexity is a bit 1-D. It's drinkable and good, and a good representative of the style. It's not a Brown Ale whale. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and has good density, but is supported by spot on carbonation. You get sweet malts, nuttiness, and dusty cocoa up front; that rolls into more sugars, some hops, more nuttiness; the back end trails the hops, and it lingers with toast and toffee/caramel. 

Rating: Strong Average (3.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Average on this. This isn't a bad beer, it's just a Brown Ale. I feel like there are more interesting Brown Ales out there. What this beer does have going for it is the clean yeast profile and the relatively clean profile of the beer overall. Also, despite being a bit 1-D, the flavors present have good depth. I'd buy it if I lived in Wisconsin, but I'm not ISO for this. The cocoa overtones would pair well with dry ribs, barbecue, and dry chocolate desserts. 

Random Thought: One more to go for the night...