Before this beer tasting adventure began, I downed ice cold brewskis with the best of ’em. Cold beer, cold mug, I was set. As my palate, knowledge and sense of adventure have increased, I have begun to notice things I didn’t before. Like beer smelling like beer. Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown Ale does just that. It smells a bit stale, like smelling your jacket after a baseball game and realizing the drunken fan behind you dropped more than his peanut shells. The look, the best part about this nut brown, is one of my favorites, a dark orange-brown and has a quickly dissipating head. Again, the nose is alcoholic, even cheap, and I searched for variety and complexity and find none. A bit of hazelnut in the introduction, the taste is thin and carbonated, but disappears quickly into a faint nuttiness, dissolving into a medicinal coating of my mouth. Now believe me, I love Leinie’s, mostly for their refreshing summer choices, but if you’re going to pull up a seat on the coach, turn down the lights and listen to the crackle of your fire, stick this one in the freezer for a few…or grab a bottle of whatever was next to it in your fridge.

ABV: 4.9%

Grade: C