Dude, Sweet, Dude... Sweet

Date: April 17, 2008

I'm out here at the Sauce hangin downtown like Cameo. I was at a loss as what I should try, and I figured I should go ahead and go for something sweet and malty. I'm sitting outside in the just about hot Houston heat, so I forego the stouts and porters and settle on the Brown.

State: Chillin and Full
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
The color is a dark dark brown. The new waitress brought it out in a bottle, so I could tell that it pours easy. It has a sweet caramel malt smell that is making my mouth water as I type this damn near 6 weeks later, though there was NO HEAD. Amazing. Holding it up to the light reveals a red color. It has surprisingly high carbonation, yet medium body. First taste is sweet maltiness though not roasted. It's very low in hops and leaves a lingering caramel and tingle on the pallet. It's very nice and almost a WOW beer for me. It's probably a touch too cold. The aftertaste comes in kind of filmy wetness, though that was a good thing this time. As it warms, it gets pretty durn heavy and bold with the caramel and some very very light bitter AT. Near the end, I'm tasting the alcohol a bit, but the beer is still strong. I was very surprised that those dudes at Dogfish messed around and put RAISINETTES in the beer. Awesome surprise there. Seeing as how I hate raisins and don't eat chocolate, I wouldn't know what that taste was. Neato. Raisinettes still suck though.

Spaten Oktoberfest
I ask the hot young waitress if there was something ye maltier than what I already had, but that was not a porter or stout. She was a bit worried and eventually brought me the last Spaten Oktoberfest. I feel really bad because after the Indian Brown Ale, this thing tasted like water. I wrote down that it was clear, orangish with a white head. Kind of spicy yet vegetal... and then my pen ran out of ink. It's just as well, as I couldn't really taste it anyway. Note to self, get the Oktoberfest, then the Brown Ale. I won't count this one against Spaten.