The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale

Review Date 2/14/2022 By John Staradumsky

           

Here’s a beer that’s new to me if not new for Clown Shoes: The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale. This was the day 6 beer in the 2021 12 Beers of Christmas sampler. At least, the box has it at number six. You don’t really open a door and pull out a beer as you do with other Advent-style calendars, so one supposes you could drink these beers in any order you like. The obsessive-compulsive side of me won’t allow that, however, so I am drinking them in order.

The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale is not currently listed on the Clown Shoes website. I did not drink it for breakfast myself, much preferring coffee at the start of the day. That said, The Barista is brewed with cold brewed espresso, chocolate malts, lots o' oats, and milk sugar according to Clown Shoes. The beer has an alcohol content of 8.5% by volume and I paid $24.99 for my 12-pack of 12-ounce cans at Sherlock’s. My can is stamped Best By 01/?/23 (I can’t make out the middle date but does it really matter?). I agree this beer would age nicely for at least a year.

Clown Shoes The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale pours to a dark mahogany color with a thick creamy tan head and a nose of brown sugar and coffee. Taking a sip, the beer is medium to slightly more in body with notes of chocolate chip cookies, brown sugar, toasted nuts (pecans or walnuts?), and a hint of coffee. In the finish, grassy herbal hops emerge, and with the coffee notes add more of a chicory theme to me than espresso. Warming alcohol also appears at the last.

Just a wonderful beer, and if I drank beer in the morning, this one would be high on my breakfast beer list. You could rate it as a coffee beer if you like, but I think the brown ale character really dominates, so I will peg it as such. This is the 3rd beer from the 2021 sampler that I have rated at 4 ½ stars, so it is tough to rank them, but here I go. You cannot go wrong with any of the beers on this list.

This year’s ranking so far (based only upon my personal preference):

The Exorcist Dry Hopped Stout

Space Cake Double IPA

The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale

Reindeer Games Bavarian Style India Pale Ale.

Space Cupcake India Pale Ale

Lil Crispy Crisp Ale

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??

 

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled, Canned

(D)=Draft





 

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