After reviewing two IPAs previously, I thought it was time to move on to something a little different. For this review I’m tasting the Maduro Brown Ale from Cigar City Brewing. Since I grew up In Newcastle Upon Tyne in Northern-England, I thought it was time to go back to a familiar beer and taste a brown ale.
Maduro Brown Ale Alcohol Content & IBU
Beer: Maduro Brown Ale
Brewery: Cigar City Brewing
Type of Beer: Brown Ale
ABV: 5.5%
IBU:25
I chose a six-pack of Maduro from a local market with a large craft beer selection and it cost me around $12.
The Appearance
The beer has an almost sweet aroma to it and the Maduro has your typical dark brown appearance with hints of a very dark orange. You can see the mixture of hops floating around at the bottom of the glass. Personally this puts me off drinking the entire glass of beer, but I know others like to see what their beer is made of in the glass.
The Taste
The Maduro brown ale has hints of caramel, toffee, chocolate, and espresso. They mix well with each other and the taste isn’t overpowering. A lot of brown ales and stouts with complex hop flavoring have a tendency to be way too much, and I’m glad to say that the Maduro remains approachable from a flavor perspective.
On their website, Cigar City Brewing state that the Maduro is:
“A northern-english style brown ale with some American affections…” however, traditional English style brown ales that I’ve had are much sharper than the Maduro, so the flavor balance is well adjusted.
I did notice a lingering aftertaste that really wasn’t pleasant, and the beer seemed to appear less and less like a beer the more I drank it. There was no carbonation left over in the glass and it seemed to take on a very flat appearance, almost like left-over soda (I used a typical lager glass for tasting).
What to Drink With:
I didn’t really agree with the description on the side of the can that said the Maduro was a great food beer. The main reason being that I found the beer to be pretty heavy – drinking it with a food of any kind of substance would make you feel full pretty quickly.
Round-Up
I was excited to try the Maduro but it’s appearance two-thirds of the way into the drink, as well as the odd after taste put me off. I will say that brown ales are somewhat of an acquired taste, but I expected a little more after reading the side of the can.
I wouldn’t fully discard the beer as a one-off drink on occasion, but there were just too many ‘gotchas’ for me to return to it more frequently.
