So I had heard all these great things about Smuttynose Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale but, well, I just couldn’t find it. Smuttynose does distribute its beer to Georgia, but some of them take longer than others to show up on store shelves, or they fly off as soon as they’re stocked. Such may have been the case with Durty, but however you pour it, I counted my blessings in finding it in this the spring of 2015.

Smuttynose Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale is an early spring seasonal, and what they call a “Hoppy Brown Ale” I call an American brown Ale, which just happens to be one of my favorite styles. American Brown Ales started showing up in the second decade of the craft brewing revolution. I still fondly recall my first bottles of Brooklyn Brown and Pete’s Wicked Ale, both highly hopped brown ales based on sweet cookie malt.

Now comes Smuttynose with an even bolder, bigger and more robust version of the style, perhaps a “Double” American brown if you will. That’s because while most beers in this style hover between 5% to 6% alcohol by volume (both of the examples I gave above are right in the center of that range), Durty clocks in at a hefty 8.4%. It’s got more of a hop bite with 97 IBUs as well.

Smuttynose says the following about Durty on their website:

Brown and hoppy; hoppy and brown – a rare pairing. But that’s the best way to describe Durty, Smuttynose Brewing Company’s new “mud season” ale. Take the caramelly notes of a brown ale, pair them with the hop aroma and flavor of a double IPA, and you’re right in this beer’s wheelhouse. Respected beer writers, bloggers and internet beer geeks have all praised Durty’s delicious balance of two styles. It has enough “oomph” to get you through the chilly nights and frosty mornings of early spring, but the light body and big hop flavor will awaken your tongue and senses for the coming warm weather. And at over 8%, you won’t mind the extra mopping and shoe stomping that comes along with the seasonal thaw.

I'm not so sure the brown and hoppy is such a rare pairing (I've tasted quite a few American Brown Ales), but it is always a welcome one, and with Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale Smuttynose has crafted one as good as any I’ve ever tasted.

Ingredients listed on the website:

Malt: North American 2-Row, Munich 10L, Chocolate, C-60, Brown Malt

Hops: Bittering - Bravo, Flavor - Nugget, Bravo; Dry Hop - Bravo, Rakao, Nugget

Smuttynose Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale runs $9.99 a six-pack in these parts. My bottles are freshness dated as best by June 30^th of 2015, I took the following tasting notes on April 16^th well before that.

Smuttynose Durty Mud Season Hoppy Brown Ale pours to a, well, dirty brown color with a thick creamy tan head formation and a soft sweet chocolate chip cookie malt nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a very thick chewy chocolate maltiness up front laced with big notes of toffee, toasted nuts and molasses. All of that wonderful luscious dark maltiness is accented with earthy hop aromas and rounded out with an aggressive herbal, long dry lingering bitterness. Did I mention the warming alcohol at the last as well?

Just an excellent American Brown Ale, and a fine companion to the classic (and more traditional) Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale. Really, this beer takes the style to a new level of intensity. It’s certainly a beer I will be buying again. And again. And again……



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