Leinenkugel’s Late Fall/Early Winter Seasonal – Fireside Nut Brown

It was time to fill up the ole propane tank yesterday. Actually, it had been time for about three weeks and I needed an excuse to run out for some beer as I was going over to a buddy’s for pizza later (and subsequently an 11 foot Christmas tree assembly). I had decided to give the old Shiner Holiday Cheer a shot but alas, to my dismay, it was all gone. I’ll try to find some for a later post. However, what I did find was Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown.

I know there are some beer snobs out there that would turn their nose up to old Leinie’s but this brewery has a soft spot in my beer-soaked heart. Before Leinie’s was available in East Tennessee I had a friend who hailed from Wisconsin that just happened to be able to sneak a few bottles of Honey Weiss back with some frequency – if you’ve ever wondered what classifies someone as a “true friend,” well, I’d say this ranks up there towards the top right under, “gave me a kidney.”

Back to the beer at hand. As the name states, it’s a nut brown, an ale if you will. As far as nut browns go, this one may be one of the “nuttier” ones I’ve had. If one looks around on these vast-interwebs for opinions on this beer you’ll find that they seem to be moderate to somewhat negative. I’m going to stray from the crowd here and state that I like this beer. Now, I will say this is a little heavy for a nut brown and like I already said, you can really taste the “nuttiness.” Also, after that first sip, you can really taste the maltiness of the beer and the taste lingers on the tongue for a bit. Now, I’m tempted to say this is the kind of beer you have one of in a sitting and them move on to something else however we didn’t seem to have any trouble polishing off all but the one I saved to write with. So keep that in mind.

Overall an enjoyable nut brown. If you like nut browns, be sure to give this a shot. If you don’t like nut browns, nuts…or the Cleveland Browns, might want to shy away or just put one in the old mix-n-match six pack before making the six-pack commitment.