Brodies: Caramel Salt Beer (England: Brown Ale: 6.5% ABV)
Visual: Cloudy sediment filled brown. Moderate creamy slightly browned head. Lots of suds left by the head.
Nose: Toffee doughnuts. Glazes. Honey coated peanuts. Coffee dust.
Body: Smooth texture. Sweet caramel dominates. Pretzels. Salt. Doughnuts. Quite bitter, Condensed cream. Sickly sweet. Raisins.
Finish: Salt. Fudge. Brown bread. Bitter. Pretzels.
Conclusion: There are good beers. Bad Beers. Beers that you drink for the experience, and beers that live up to their names. This is at the very least the latter two.
Very thick textured and sickly sweet. That caramel and salt are unmistakable, calling both to toffee doughnuts and salted pretzels. An odd mix of quite bready products with sweet and salt variants. There has been some debate over how salted this is. To me it was quite prevalent, especially in the finish. To my friends it was a subtle note. Maybe I’m just very sensitive to salt. Any which way the caramel by far dominates of the two elements.
The flavour levels you get in this are, if anything, slightly too big. When it is sweet it is sickly, the salt is shaken loosely over and dries in the finish. It is quite unlike a beer I have tried before. I had to take my time, to decide if it was a good beer or a bad beer that just happened to be very interesting.
While I was deciding my friend and I had a short debate on if the doughnuts here more resembled Thornton’s Toffee in Doughnuts or Krispy Kreme. It was quickly decided. Krispy Kreme styled sickly sweet all the way.
So, with that digression out of the way I returned to. Is it a good beer?
For a half I decided it is the sweet bready delight. The unique flavours lean just on the right side of manageable and it doesn’t hold anything back. For a full pint, I don’t think I could manage that.
Frankly, grab a half, its character is unique, thick and lovely. You wont regret it.
Background; I admit, I looked up the beer style for this one as I had no sodding idea. Drunk at the Brodies Easter Bash in London. It was a friends Birthday and so I was down and taking the chance to enjoy the massive range of beers they had on that night. I drank a good few but only got the chance to review but a fraction. So a Caramel Salt Beer huh. You knew I had to at least try it. I am becoming quite the fan of Brodies, their massive range of beers, very cheap prices at their home pub, wild experimentation and high quality make them a good choice.
Alcohol And Aphorisms 
Sounds very interesting.
I would be all for it but a pint or two, maybe not. Rogues from Oregon are brewing donut inspired beers too.
Speaking of Quests for a Holy Ale…. Rogue VooDoo Donuts Maple Bacon Porter was the target of one of mine. I finally slayed it in Scottsdale last April and was very disappointed. No biggie though, I also took down the Stone collab TBA and Green Flash Palate Wrecker on the same trip. Those were fantastic.
Cheers!
Ah the Doughnut Voodoo, etc, etc. Found it during the road trip of awesome which was cool.I agree that technically it was not a particularly good beer but I still geeked out because of the concept. I may geek out easily due to strange things.
I was wondering when the Committee on the Proliferation of Salted Caramel Commodities would eventually get around to invading the realm of craft beers. I can occasionally deal with an actual salted caramel and I can handle a spoon or two of salted caramel ice cream and from your review I doubt I’d get much beyond a few sips of this. Doubtful it’ll make any appearances over here anyway.
Thanks (or not) for the Krispy Kreme reference. Now i have to stop in for a dozen on the way home (only if the light is on).
Cheers!
hahah I am evil, in away that your tastebuds will hopefully appreciate 🙂
Years ago Chipotle was the buzword, now it is salted caremel.