After finding a couple of beers in the beer fridge that had 2011 dates on them, I thought I’d investigate further. It turns out I have a corner of the fridge with some older beers, so I’m going to start digging into them. I found this one, which was marked 6.21.11, that I remember picking up as part of a mixed pack of Real Ale beers I got on a business trip to Texas. At the time, I reviewed the Real Ale Rio Blanco Pale Ale and the Real Ale Full Moon Pale Rye Ale.

Location: Poured into a Sam Adams perfect pint glass from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.4% ABV, 33 IBUs, 13 Plato OG, 170 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s dark brown in color and appears to be fairly hazy, with some visible sediment from the bottle. It has a very thin, creamy, cream-colored head and a toasted malt and nutty aroma.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and mouthfeel is creamy. There is a light caramel maltiness up front, which becomes a mix of light, sweet caramel and smooth nutty flavor in middle. It finishes with the same flavors, but accompanied by some earthy hop bitterness. The nuttiness and light caramel maltiness lasts for a bit in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has some nice, smooth nuttiness and light caramel flavors that would go great with some Texas BBQ. I’m picturing a thick pulled pork sandwich covered in some sweet BBQ sauce mixing perfectly with the sweet and nutty flavors in the beer.

Overall Impression: I wasn’t sure how this was going to be, since it was a year and a half old, but I believe the time in the fridge made it nice and smooth. I really enjoyed the lightly sweet caramel and nutty flavors, which seemed to last for a bit. Overall, I thought this was a very flavorful brown ale with a taste I really enjoyed.

My Rating:

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