Belgian brewers’ busy cave-aged Pierre Celis Signature Selection retains rust-copper hue, mild buttery creaminess and intensifying cherry motif. Cascading bubbles float to billowing tan head, providing elegant visual inspection. Candied sugar sweetness invites dried fig assertion, ashy fruit segue, and peat-tobacco surge to spicy herbal tangent. Gingerbread-cinnamon-nutmeg illusions beneath get cedar shading.

Buttery chocolate malt creaminess, fizz-hopped nutty caramel dirge, and wavered fruit esters give loosely defined stock ale an apparent light porter essence. Oxidized chemical insistence leads to metallic overload. Rich, robust up-front; losing steam by bleak finish.

Out front, toasted barley and dry rye caress butterscotch sweetness of wood-charred sienna-auburn medium body. Spicy citric hop fizz nips fulsome wheat backbone, but phenol astringency undermining chestnut-walnut finish hinders subsidiary herbal tea sedation, dried tobacco pinch, and faded mocha tones.

Bland dry-bodied maroon-hued garnet-highlighted dark amber ale brings cocoa frontage and dismal powdered chocolate plunk to sour-fruited funk. Phenol finish gets metallic, agitating clumped lactose froth, coarse vegetal graining and fleeting cola stint.

Swampy grain presence frustrates concealed mocha tartness. For a Colorado brew, this is nowhere near as refined or organic as local competition and its tepid roasted finish seems dirty and cheap. Brewery defunct: 2006.

Cloudy brown-hued barley-roasted ale with delicate mocha outlining butterscotch, caramel, dried cocoa, and pale honey swatch. Yeast-thick barleywine overtones modulate dry finish.  Brewery defunct: 2000.

Sweet mocha-malt mildness and grainy earthiness contain washed out hop carbonation for an inviting Scotch-like pleasantry. Lacks richness of better brown ales, but soothing water texture remains brisk.

Diffidently indifferent ‘English-styled’ brown ale starts poorly, following up unassuming acrid waft with astringent hop toasting, suspect sourdough tier, and phenol hazelnut smear. Gets worse when metallic underside ruins meager chestnut roast.

Dreary amber-hued ale receives little support from roasted barley sweetness, sour grape esters, and simple buttery smoothness, dousing spicy chocolate nut undercurrents through anemic spritzy fizz only soft-hearted pilsner fans would condone.

Astringent copper body – less chocolate nutty than similarly styled, richer English ales – burrows citric souring and coarse hazelnut acridity through sweet barley-oats. Dirty earthen wood ebb conceals strong-brewed unsweetened ice tea illusion, distant herbal notion, and fluctuant burgundy respite.

Strong, efficient, frothy-headed, burgundy-hued brown ale with dried fruit theme, silken carbonation, and peppery hop bite creates early barleywine illusion. Black chocolate-raisin midst leads to delicately complex port-burgundy core that’s pure joy. Impressively contoured prune souring and sun-drenched fig sugaring fill out detailed finish.

From the plains of Iowa comes this truly enjoyable brown ale (brewed by New York’s Middle Ages after 2004). Aromatic mocha frisk and dark chocolate richness combine with honeyed caramel overtones to bittersweet nut finish. Resplendent barleywine illusions tucked deep inside.