Udomsuk: Malty Cole (Thailand: Brown Ale: 5.9% ABV)
Visual: Slightly reddened brown clear body. Creamy brownish white head.
Nose: Apricot. Ovaltine. Light grapefruit. Nutty hop character.
Body: Fresh front. Pineapple over slight sour raspberry. Nutty malt base. Moderate bitterness.
Finish: Sour gooseberry over nutty malt character. Moderate bitterness. Light charring. Light tart raspberry cooler. Tart apple.
Conclusion: Ok, an interesting one here. Was listed as American Brown Ale and to my eyes definitely matches that style, but it does have a few notes that remind me of an English Brown ale and combined it makes a weird mix of the two.
So, at its base this is quite a nutty malt base, rather than leaning towards the sweeter takes on a brown ale, and adds to that a bit of hoppiness which seems very present in the American take on the style. There is a kind of Ovaltine malt drink character, but generally nutty and hoppy is the main base character. However it takes a while to notice that as initially that mainly shows in the finish as there are much fresher notes also at play here.
Up front you get a touch of apricot, which used to dominate the USA beer scene and its imitators. However more interestingly there is a light fresh grapefruit, into pineapple in the body that really cuts through everything and makes the body lighter and fresher but without making it thin.
It makes the beer lightly sour and that is what reminds me of some slightly soured English Brown Ales, but in a way that I don’t think a British brown ale would do it, using tarter hop flavours to do it rather than part of the base character. It makes for a refreshing character, even slightly into raspberry cooler like very lightly at times, working well over what often would be a heavy brown malty base.
It’s a look that works well – solid simple bitter malt and nutty character but freshened up with tarter hop flavours. Oddly the apricot never really shows itself much over time, I don’t know if a tad more would enhance the complexity or hurt the beer by too may contrasting notes, but as is this is a surprisingly easy to drink brown. Considering once again the heat I was drinking this in, tarting and freshening it up a bit makes sense to make a fresh yet malty drink that I am enjoying.
Background: On returning to Bangkok I poked my head back into Dock 13 for a brew, because of course I did. Had a nice wee chat with one of the bar staff about The Brewing Project – unfortunately my first choice a Deschutes x TBP collaboration called Crimson Red IPA, was just ending. They let me have the small amount remaining to try and it was very nice. Then, since I have not had many brown ales recently, I decided to try one of the underappreciated style. On that note this is listed as Bock beer on untappd, but I’m going with what it was listed on the menu for its beer style as it seemed to fit well enough.
