“A Clown Shoes legend, Brown Angel put away her dancing shoes to focus on extracting espresso, brewing coffee and pouring latte art with zen-like focus. The Barista Breakfast Brown is crafted with Maris Otter malt, flaked oatmeal, cold brewed espresso, milk sugar and the spirit of angel wings.”
Served in an English pint glass. The mahogany body is capped off by a fluffy two finger head which holds up nicely. It gradually reduces to a thick overlay that leaves a trail of dense, sudsy lace clinging to the glass. Very aromatic on the nose. We get roasted nuts, toast, oats, espresso, cocoa and vanilla pods leading out. Like if that’s not enough already there’s a plethora of undertones like dark chocolate, dough, almonds and hints of aniseed/licorice in support. Well, if the brewers are comparing this to the Brown Angel they’re already miles ahead in our view. The mouth feel is effortless and slightly creamy with medium body and mild-medium Co2. One aspect that must be pointed out is the unbelievably well hidden ABV (9%). If we didn’t know any better we’d have guessed it to be around the 6-7% mark. Superb. The use of oats in this brew play a central role in the make up of the front palate. A sugary lactose sweetness cuts through the slightly bitter espresso and dark chocolate notes across the mid and reunites with creamy flavours of vanilla and soy. It finishes with a delicious roast that sweeps back around to punctuate with notes of coffee, licorice and bready malts. Wow, this is a tasty Brown Ale. The additions of espresso, oats and milk sugar really make all the difference here. A solid Maris Otter malt base gives it a nice, full mouth feel while the additional flavours add the unique character to it. Very palatable ale here.