Feature Beer Friday! - NOLA Brown Ale

Another local beer in the Feature Beer Friday! series... and the second one overall from our friends just down the road in New Orleans.  NOLA (New Orleans Lager & Ale) has been around for a few years now and has emerged as one of the craft brewing leaders in the state.  I've previously featured their Hopitoulas IPA in this segment, and NOLA also puts out some of the better craft beers around with their Irish Channel Stout, Mechahopzilla, Pour Me Somethin' Mistah, and others.  Today though, we're going session-style and trying the NOLA Brown Ale.  

The NOLA Brown is labeled a "Brown" but stylistically they call it an English Dark Mild Ale, which is a fancy way of saying it uses English malts, it's dark in color, it's not too strong, and it's an ale!  In fact it's only 4% abv on average so this one is really coming in on the low side for craft beers and that's also one of the more appealing aspects of the brew.  It's even the #20 ranked English Dark Mild Ale on BeerAdvocate, so that's pretty cool!  Sessionable local beer in a can?  Hell yeah if you ask me... but on to the review:


Reviewers: Eric Ducote (BR Beer Scene), Jay Ducote (BiteandBooze.com), Charles Pierce (Me And My Big Mouth podcast), Brenton Day (The Ale Runner.com), and Ross Marcotte.

Serving: 12 oz. can.

Appearance: Dark brown, small white head, exactly what you'd expect.

Aroma: I found a good caramel/molasses aroma in this one that reminded me of Steen's cane syrup. Brenton and Jay both thought it was more roasted, and maybe even a little nutty. 


Taste: The roasted notes that they picked up on the nose were more present to me in the taste.

Mouthfeel: A little on the thin side, but this is only a 4% beer, and there were no bad off flavors to worry about.

Overall: We all enjoyed this one, but some of the panel more than others.   I thought it was very nice easy drinking brown ale, and a perfect brew for getting a little more malt flavor out of a session beer. 


Overall Rating: 70.8
My Rating: 70