LIL' BANDIT BROWN ALE

by Jason Pinkowski
(Beer Delegate, WI, USA)

LIL' BANDIT BROWN ALE: expect more from a GABF silver medalist? Us, too

I am always up for trying new beers, especially when somebody brings me a bottle of something they enjoyed. This is exactly what happened when my good friend Mike brought me LIL' BANDIT BROWN ALE from Northwoods Brewpub located in Eau Claire, WI. Mike seemed to really like it so I was quite excited to give it a try, then after researching a bit more I discovered that this is a Silver Medal Winner at the Great American Beer Festival. Needless to say, I am quite psyched up to try this beer.

Upon pouring the bottle into the glass I made my first observations. The color and clarity on this beer are amazing. The color is a deep caramel brown with a hint of red in it, while you could perfectly read a magazine through the glass the beer was so crystal clear.

As I was pouring the beer I noticed there was no head forming at all, so I gave it a bit of a more of a dump into the glass right at the end of the bottle. The head formed very thin with a nice white lace that quickly dissipated. The carbonation was at a nice level for a brown ale, very low but the bubbles ran nicely up the side of the glass.

As I raised the glass to my nose to take a sniff, the aroma was not one that I expected from a brown ale. The aroma was of a sour almost infected smell with a hint of green apple. Not being discouraged, I went for a drink. The body on the beer was very thin, too thin in my opinion for a good brown ale. The flavor seemed to be missing some of the nutty, slightly toasted notes commonly found in many commercial examples of browns. The hop flavor was virtually undetectable which for an English example of the style is acceptable.

Overall I was highly underwhelmed by this beer and was truly hoping for more from a Silver Medalist at the GABF. As I mentioned, my friend Mike really liked this beer, so give it a try to see if it suits your palate, but my overall opinion that you can find better examples of brown ales out there.