Ale Asylum Madtown Nut Brown Review

Brewery: Ale Asylum, Madison, Wisconsin
Beer: Madtown Nut Brown
Serving: 12 oz bottle
Glassware: nonic
Information: 5.5% ABV
Style: American Brown Ale
Availability: Year-round

Cellaring: Not recommended for extended aging.

Appearance

Pouring clear dark bronzed walnut in color, Madtown Nut Brown forms a thin bone colored head. Dots of lace speckle the glass in rings but the fleeting head disappears rather quickly.

Smell

Madtown Nut Brown has a openly nutty aroma with toasted biscuit and caramel sweetness trailing. As the beer warms hints of woody maple and a fine layer of earthy hops make their way in on the back end with raisin and dark cherry emerging as the beer warms.

Taste

A blend of dry nuttiness opens the flavor profile with a follow up of equally dry toasted amber malts and a dollop of caramel sweetness. Wood shavings present earthy tones, which compliment the nuttiness along the finish.

Mouthfeel

Madtown Nut Brown starts smooth and lush with a round malt mouthfeel but dries out quickly in conjunction with the carbonated finish. The entry brings some needed balance to the dry, nutty ale.

Overall

Nut-rich and earthy, the dry toasted notes seem to overwhelm the sweetness of this beer for a significant balance shift to the “nutty” side. Madtown is certainly not a bad beer, by any standards, it’s just not my cup of tea when it comes to brown ales; the sweetness hides providing minimal balance and it’s dryness becomes cloying.

Score: 72 / 100 – Decent

Cheers,
-Andy

Ale Asylum

Brewery: Ale Asylum
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Production: 2012 – 12,000 barrels 2013 projected to hit 20,000 barrels
Year Founded: 2006 (850 barrels)
Website
Brewmaster: Dean Coffee
Brewmaster’s Favorite Beer: Coffee prefaced his response with “I really love some of our Belgian Ales like Happy Ending or Mercy ” but admitted that even when those are available he still finds himself drinking Hopalicious most often.  Mostly because while still being sessionable, it has that bright vibrant hop flavor he never gets sick of.
Availability: WI, statewide by years end
About: “At ALE ASYLUM, we brew beers in the tradition of our friend Crusty Oldbrewer who sent us on this path: brew honest, brew like you mean it. Thus, our beer is brewed and bottled with our own hands on Madison’s East Side. In fact, ALE ASYLUM operates the only bottling facility in Madison.

ALE ASYLUM is unfiltered and all natural. We use no additives, preservatives, fruit, horse hooves, fish guts, or extracts. Our ingredient list: water, malt, hops, and yeast. This is what we mean when we say our beer is FERMENTED IN SANITY.  You know who makes it, you know what it’s made with. You know after having one you’ll want another.

We brew traditional, bold beers for those who demand quality and consistency. To those people we say: raise a pint, because you believe how we believe.”

Year-round Beers:
Ambergeddon
Contorter Porter
Hopalicious
Madtown Nut Brown

Seasonal Beers:
Ballistic IPA
Bedlam! IPA
Mercy
Satisfaction Jacksin
Sticky McDoogle
Tripel Nova

Limited Beers:
Bamboozelator
Big Slick Stout
Diablo
Gold Digger
Happy Ending
Unshadowed