4 Hands Cast Iron Oatmeal Brown

Brewed By: 4 Hands Brewing Co. in Saint Louis, Missouri

Purchased: 12oz bottle bought at Binny's in Naperville, IL; 2014

Style/ABV: Brown Ale, 5.5% 

Reported IBUs: ?

This beer is proof that distributors hanging around in stores offering me free samples can persuade me to buy their beer. About 4 Hands Brewing Co.: 

4 Hands Brewing Co. are a brewery based out of Saint Louis, Missouri. The brewery was founded in 2011 by owner/president Kevin Lemp. The brewery features a number of brewers, including ex-Goose Island guru, Will Johnston. 4 Hands is all about hand-crafted beers, and they feature a barrel-aging program that uses wine and spirit barrels. Exciting stuff. Definitely check out their website or Facebook page.

The Cast Iron Oatmeal Brown is an American Brown Ale brewed with hefty malts. The bottle reads: "This is one robust brown ale. We use chocolate malts, roasted barley, and oats to give this beer that cast iron backbone. Cast Iron Oatmeal Brown pours a dark mahogany with aromas of dark chocolate and coffee."

4 Hands Cast Iron Oatmeal Brown

This is your typical Brown Ale affair: a dark brown, but not opaque body; two fingers of brown tinged head hanging around for the long haul. You could float a bottle cap on this head, probably courtesy of the oats. Yay, oats! Shining a bright light through the beer reveals that ruby red body, and there's some pretty active streams of carbonation cascading up. It's a Brown Ale, folks.

The aroma here is REALLY NICE. I cannot emphasize that enough. For this style, this is one of the best smelling Brown Ales out there. I'm getting knocked on my ass with huge waves of cocoa chocolate, caramel, toast and biscuit, Brown Ale nuttiness, and huge oats. There's some coffee-mocha-creamer in the mix as well. This is everything you want in a Brown Ale, and then some. It's a sweet aroma...and just yeah. Wow. 

The taste follows through with the aroma, with intense sweetness, a pillowy-smooth mouthfeel, and good vibes all around. I'm getting big chocolate, cocoa, coffee, creamer, mocha, toasted notes and biscuit, Tootsie chocolates, and even some hints of lightly floral hops on the finish. There's some nutty and toasty notes in here, and the whole thing just dials the execution up to 11. 

This is one of the better American Brown Ales I have had...I don't seek out this style very often, but there you go. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, and smooth as hell. Palate depth is phenomenal, but the complexity could maybe be a little higher. Or could it? I don't know....at 5.5% this plays things straight, and I like that. Up front: tons of cocoa and velvety smooth chocolate, oats, coffee creamer, coffee, mocha; the mids hit a biscuit and toast note, with more creamer and coffee, lingering cocoa sweetness; the back end continues to dust your palate with malt sweetness, faint hops show up to balance things out, and the finish is all malts. Fat, stupid, delicious.

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is one of the best American Brown Ales I have had...at least the best one that doesn't cheat too much. Yeah, the oats are an adjunct and they help to beef things up, but this isn't an Imperial Brown Ale or some Christmas release. It plays things straight, and that's cool. 

Random Thought: 4 Hands, you seem cool. I might buy more of your shit. 

Rogue HazelNut Brown Nectar

Brewed By: Rogue Ales in Newport, Oregon  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2014

Style/ABV: American Brown Ale, 6.2%

Reported IBUs: 33

I had no plans to pick this one up but it caught my GF's eye so yeah woo. Beer. About Rogue:

Rogue has been around forever, and if their beer was more widely available, and not so damn expensive, I'd probably drink more of their stuff. The brewery was founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon by Jack Joyce, Bob Woodell, Rob Strasser, and home brewer Jeff Schultz. Due to increasing space and distribution limitations, Jack Joyce went searching in Newport for a location for the new Rogue pub. It was at this time that he met Mohave Niem, founder of Mo's Clam Chowder. She offered Jack space to brew in her building, and in 1989 the Bay Front Brew Pub was built. Rogue's headquarters currently reside in Newport to this day. In May 1989, current head brewmaster, John Maier, joined Rogue after a brief sting brewing with Alask Brewing. John was a former Senior Technician with Hughes Aircraft Co, and a graduate of the Seibel Institute. To learn more about Rogue, check out their website HERE.

The HazelNut Brown Nectar is a European-style Brown Ale brewed with Great Western 2-Row, Munich, C-15, C-75, C-120, Kiln Coffee, Brown, Rogue Farms Dare & Risk Malts; Rogue Farms Revolution & Independence Hops; and Hazelnut Extract, Free Range Coastal Water, and Rogue's Pacman Yeast.

Rogue HazelNut Brown Nectar

This one pours like a stereotypical Brown Ale: a dark brown/reddish, slightly hazy body, and a finger of bready, toast-colored head. A centimeter of head is hanging around, there is some nice lacing, and there is some dotty carbonation in my glass. Brown Ale all the way.

The aroma on this beer is awesome, with huge toast, nuttiness, intense caramel, melanoidins, and big raisins, dried fruits, and Twizzlers. Wow..the raisins and Twizzlers note is almost Doppelbock-esque, and this beer is giving off deeply rich aroma vibes.

The first thing I'm noticing on the taste that is a total surprise is the big hop note: there's a huge pine character that borders on pine sap, maple syrup, and Christmas. It's very Barleywine-esque. I'm getting pine nuts, nuttiness, caramel, raisins, dried figs, and some juniper in the taste. There's some caramel, toffee, and toast as well. The taste is very clean, with the nutty-pinenut-hops coming out first, and then the dark fruits and caramel flavors expanding next.

This has a medium-light body, supported by lots of carbonation. The palate depth is okay, and complexity is very high for the style. As this opens up a bit and warms up, you pick up a faint roast character. At around 6%, this is very drinkable. Up front: pine nuts, nuttiness, pine sap, maple syrup, juniper. The mids feature some toast, complex toasted malts and melanoidins; the back end is lingering toast/roast, and big raisins, Twizzlers. It finishes piney and dry.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average here. This is a really stellar Brown Ale, with some serious pine nuts and pine sap character that just makes the beer pop. This would be the perfect late Autumn, early Winter beer. I could see myself cracking into one of these in November or December. I could see myself pairing this beer with a hearty stew or soup, duck, and pork roast. Really good beer, I'll pick this up again in the 6-pack format.

Random Thought: See? Rogue also makes good beer; I'm not biased against Rogue, I'm just honest.

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...