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Let me take you back a tad over a year ago.  I was in Orlando visiting a friend and stopped into Knightly Spirits to get some beer.  People were telling me this is the place to go for beer in Orlando.  They weren’t kidding.  But anyway I was searching for Cigar City stuff.  We in South Florida had not yet gotten them down here so I wanted whatever I could get.  They only had two things from them and they were Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout and this one, Bolita Brown.

A couple days after coming home with my haul I read Cigar City’s blog to find out that Bolita had gotten infected.  They were accepting bottles to be returned to the brewery for credit and they would then take all the infected bottles and make a sour out of it.

I could not just make the drive to Tampa to return the bottle so I held onto it as they said some might find the sour taste enjoyable but it was not what Bolita was meant to be.  So I held onto it and eventually opened it up at our first meeting of the minds (or livers as I said) early in 2010 where we shared beers and talked improving the beer community in South Florida.  A number of us really enjoyed it but we had no idea what the beer was suppose to taste like as Bolita Brown.

Well fast forward to the present and the new batch of Bolita is on the shelves now.  So I picked up a bottle for this very special week of all Cigar City reviews.  So will I like the real version as much as the infected one?

Popping the cap off of the 750 ml bottle and it pours a dark brown color into my snifter.  There are some dark red highlights along the edges of the glass as well.  The head is a nice tan color that looks creamy in consistency.

The nose has a good amount of malty character to it.  Lots of caramel and brown sugar come across along with some cherries and nuts.

The taste is much of the same with some very pleasant vanilla and chocolate notes in there to match up with the malty profile.  The body is creamy and bigger than I thought it would be.

This is actually a pretty damn good beer.  I really enjoyed sipping on it during the evening.

Now was it as good or better than the infected version?  To me?  No, but I’m a bit of a sour head so that was quite a treat.  But that is not to take away from this beer as what it is suppose to be.  It is a big English brown ale.  Lots of malt, brown sugar and nuts in it.  Very good in itself.

I would like to add that while in Sarasota over the past weekend Phil from Dos Beerigos and United We Drink fame picked up a bottle of last year’s Bolita from Cock n Bull Pub.  It had the old label on it and had a strange light blue wax top on it.  So we are hoping this is a remaining infected bottle.

So if you enjoy big, bold brown ales I say go out and get this one.  Then crack it open and share with a friend.

Grade - B+

Appearance – Poured a clear, amazing deep red color with a big slightly off white head.

Smell – Sweet caramel with some roasted malts and roasted nuts.

Taste – Subtle roasted malts followed by roasted nuts and finishes smooth and sweet with caramel and a bit of a chocolate taste.

Of the Lost Coast brews I have tried so far I have been underwhelmed but my never giving up on a brewery has paid off as I find Winterbraun to be a very good brown ale.  It doesn’t really have the winter type spices to it like other winter beers but does have a bit of a warming effect with the roasted nuts and malt type flavors in it.  I wish this one was a year rounder.

Overall Grade – A

Appearance – Poured a very dark brown with a big tannish head.

Smell – Rich roasted malts and slightly sweet caramel smell.

Taste – Roasted malts, coffee, caramel and toffee.

Another new one to our area, I decided to go with the Brown Ale as my first venture since I haven’t had one in the style for a long time.  It was pretty on to what the style should be and I enjoyed it.  I look forward to trying their other brews that we got too.

Overall Grade – B