Style: Brown Ale

ABV: 5.5

84/100

Aroma:	10
Appearance:	3
Flavor:	16
Mouthfeel:	4

West Sixth Brewing Co Smithtown Brown

What the brewers say

Balanced and complex brown ale with roasty caramel, molasses, and chocolate malt notes, and a subtle, earthy hop character.

What our panel thought

Sweet, fruity, musty, earthy aroma: lychee, berries, dates, plums, light toast, and caramel, with piney hops. Flavor starts with sweet, smooth toasted malt followed by pronounced, fresh, piney-resinous hops. Tropical notes linger. Very flavorful. Slightly too bitter.

What our editors thought

Over-the-top floral nose with lavender, honey, tangerine, lime, and lemongrass—almost Southeast Asian. The sip is more conventional, with light roast, heavily toasted bread, and a honey back note. A bit thin, but curious flavors bring us back.

Review printed in: Brewing Craft Classics (Feb-Mar 2021) (View All Issues)

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**Aroma:** “Classic Belgian ester profile with banana and some apple, plum, and raisin notes. Slight peppery notes. Rich dark malt with some hints at melanoidins. Mild alcohol and some hops there, too.” **Flavor:** “Toasty malt sweetness, but also a fair amount of balancing hops, both bittering and flavor hops. Banana, some cherry, raisin, prune, and dark fruit notes with plenty of spicy phenols. Some alcohol warmth. Long, smooth, off-dry finish.” **Overall:** “The malt and ester balance is artful, but they don’t integrate as well with the hops. There is a lot going on in this beer that took a while to fully comprehend—at first sip the subdued nose undersold it, but the character came out deeper into the glass. The flavors are very well blended; nothing sticks out at all.”

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