As I’m spending the next couple of weeks celebrating my local co-op, I thought I’d also focus my beer reviews and pairings on local brews and local food.
My first review is of our one truly local brewery, and one whose beers I have yet to review: Big Muddy Brewing Company in Murphysboro. Big Muddy has been offering beers regionally for about two years now, growing from a local distribution, slowly making its way north to the Chicago area. Owner Chuck Stuhrenberg has been a generous guide into the world of beer, allowing me to brew with him on occasion and to help him pour beer at regional beer festivals, such as St. Louis’s Microfest and Madison’s Great Taste of the Midwest.
I’m reviewing his latest release, the Big Muddy Monster, a beer he brewed as a collaboration with another friend Shawn Connelly, southern Illinois’s Beer Philosopher. The Big Muddy Monster is an India Brown Ale, a hybrid beer that is part hopped up American Brown ale, part malted up American IPA. The beer has only recently become available in bottled form, and is a hot seller, if the sales at Kindling, where I work at once a week, are any indication. The beer I’m reviewing today is only the second batch brewed on a large scale, and will surely go through some more tweaks in the months ahead.
Below are my tasting notes and tomorrow I pair it with a smoky, cherry wood-fired bleu cheese burger.
Big Muddy Monster
India Brown Ale/Specialty Beer
Aroma
Interesting mix of chocolate and citrus hops. A little roasted aroma with almost a hint of milkiness, as if there were a lactic addition. Low esters, if any, hidden behind the malt. No DMS or diacetyl.
8/10 points
Appearance
Dark, dark brown, almost black. Moderate off-white head that hangs around the surface of the beer and on the sides of the glass. Almost opaque, because so dark. I know they’re still working on making the color more brown on the brown side and this appears to still be leaning black.
2/3 points
Flavor
Very dry. Perception of dryness is enhanced by the roasty character of the malts and possibly a fairly robust hop addition for bittering. Surprisingly less sweet than it smells (and than I remember from the first version). Roasty character comes to the fore with melanoidins in tow. Almost too heavily roasted character which borders on char. Dominant coffee flavor with a hint of chocolate. Citrus hops take a back seat to malts.
15/20 points
Mouthfeel
Moderately full body with moderate carbonation. A hint of creaminess, but generally quite dry. Don’t get much alcohol “warming” effect, but the strength of the 6.5% alcohol content sure creeps up on you quick.
5/5 points
Overall
I enjoy this beer. I like the complex malt profile and that the hops enhance the malt flavors but aren’t the driving force of the beer. I found this a bit drier than I remember in the first version and, considering the kind of creamy, milky aroma that must come from the melanoidins in the malts, I think that a lactose addition might actually be nice to enhance the sweetness and give the beer more creaminess on the palate. Just enough to bring the beer together, but perhaps not as much as in a milk stout, for example. Very enjoyable sipping beer. Would be great with pulled pork, bleu cheese, or anything with anise.
8/10 points
38 points: Excellent
