Tumut River Brewing ‘Tea Innit’ English Brown Ale

Rating:

“A brown ale with tea in it.. We love the occasional cuppa so we decided to combine some fine English tea with the finest artisanal dark malts from our good mates at Voyager Craft Malt and tin it. The result is a smooth and very drinkable brown ale that showcases the stunning flavours of the malted barley with a subtle hint of tea for the perfect arv refreshment . Smashing innit!”

Glassware: English Pint.

Appearance: Light mahogany with a deep ruby red tint when held to the light. It forms a finely beaded two finger head which slowly peels off. Lace rings mark each sip on the glass on its way down.

Aroma: We must give credit to TRBC, they’re always pushing the boundaries when it comes to edgy beers. Sometimes they pull it off and sometimes they fail miserably. We’re not going to call this too early but this may potentially fall into the ‘failed miserably’ category. Classic Brown Ale nuttiness though, delicate milk chocolate and toast on one hand and then the spicy, grassy and earthy tea on the other. Interesting.

Flavour: Oh wow okay. The characters that were already sorta clashing on the nose are now in all out warfare. We absolutely love Brown Ale and we both don’t mind a cuppa every now and then but you’d have to be a true die-hard Englishman to dig this. There’s simply no cohesion between the mildly roasted malts, nuts and spicy tea and unfortunately it maintains this position through to the finish.

Mouthfeel: Slightly rigid and a bit chewy. Mild-moderate body, low-ish Co2. The 5.3% ABV is neither here nor there.

Overall: Well…not much more can be said at this point. It’s a sink pour. Which we hate to do coz we do actually like what TRBC put out (most of the time). This though….this was an exception.