Fort Collins Big Shot
A big Hazelnut Brown Ale with a warm, nutty, toffee-like flavor. A wonderful winter warmer to enjoy with friends during the holiday seasons. A wildly big strong ale we call the Big Shot.
3.2
155 reviews
Fort Collins, United States
Community reviews
Pour on tap at Black Bottle, dark brownish pour with off white head, aroma brought notes of caramel, toffee, nuts, hints of earth, slight grainy notes into a bit of grass, slight fruity notes as well. Taste is a mix of earth, fruit, nuts, into some caramel, toffee in there, finishing dry, slightly sweet.
Bottle. Pours brown with white head. Nose and taste of malt, toasted bread, grape and light spice. Medium body.
22 oz bomber in the make your own six at Evergreen Discount Liquors. Dark brown with a tan head. Aroma and flavor of roasted malts, bitter hops, caramel and nuts. Medium body with a smooth finish. Tasty and easy to drink.
Bomber from Buy Rite Silverton. Poured a decent looking orange/brown body with a foamy average sized head. Aroma of bad nuts, light chocolate and hazelnut, bad dough and raisins, musty cellar. Big full body with average carbonation and a quick big falvor bite that slowly fades. Flavor is a touch better than the aroma, notes of hazelnuts, brown bread, dried dark fruits, hint of raisin and port, dough, touch of tea leaves and coffee. Not bad maybe I won’t wait for it to be 9 months old next time.
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Location: 22 oz bottle from Buy Rite, 3/18/13,
Aroma: The nose is heavy malty, with lots of toffee, plenty of nutty notes, light caramel, and roast
Appearance: It pours a clear mahogany color with a thick foam of beige head and fairly heavy lace
Flavor: Tastes heavy malty and pretty sweet, fairly nutty as well, and doesn’t have much bitterness
Palate: This one is medium bodied with a solid mouthfeel that’s fairly typical in the style
Overall Impression:
This is a decent beer for what it is trying to be. All the components seem to be pretty well intentioned and well executed, but the beer itself just isn’t all that exciting.
This was a good non-spicy winter warmer. Some good heft to the body and a nuttiness that is not too much.
On tap at Steakout Saloon in Fort Collins in December. Pours a reddish brown color with white head. Toffee, nutty, caramel, malty flavors. Not bad.
December 18th, 2011 - Every November and December the local beer stashes fill up with a plethora of brown ales, all of them promising some mixture of toffee and chocolate flavors, and all of them projecting an image of friends and family gulping down dark brown beer near a roaring fireplace. I like the idea, but I find that there are so many beers that I’d have to turn the family fireside chat into a regular, daily institution just to cover all the beers released. The family, of course, is unwilling to indulge my Normal Rockwell style gatherings near the fire, so only a select few beers make it past the cashier’s counter. This year (2011) Fort Collins’ Big Shot Seasonal Ale was one of the picks, mostly on account of the Colorado friendly image of a skiing snowman - seasonal without being too classically Christmas. The color is a nice, deep brown and orange and red, like the aforementioned hearth, and from it the smell is a rich, dense roasted caramel with lots of burnt malt swimming around in the bouquet, and oozing ribbons of toffee. Chocolate shavings accent this rich menu of smells, and a dusting of cinnamon rounds out the concoction. The flavor has a much hopper and bitter dimension, with many of the good flavors of fall, like cinnamon and leather and even dried fruit skins, especially mango. Overall this is an engaging "winter warmer", and though I may get burnt out from sitting next to the idyllic fire place so often (ha!) this will be there when I do.
Bottle. Pours a dark amber with hints of red and a smallish head. Awfully malty in the nose, and a fairly easy drink. Little bit of coffee and caramel, but not a lot to the taste.
Aroma is nutty malts, chocolate and toffee. The flavor is dryish malts, a nutty character, fruit and a late bitterness in the finish.
dark red brown clear color with small tan head. Aroma of molasses, toffee, caramel, hazelnut. Flavor is mostly molasses with some nuts on the finish. Palate is disappointing, kind of watery with an odd finish after the nut taste. Okay.
Purchased from Total Wine on sale so may have been around for a while. Poured from a 22oz with a white-tan head that yields decent lacing and has a nice clear dark amber color. Aroma is very minimal with maybe some hints of spice. Tastes of malt and spice although also not quite there. A decent ale but not really close to a seasonal in terms of aroma and taste.
Poured into a snifter.
3.5 A: Nearly clear deep amber color. Two and a half fingers of beige, creamy/frothy head. Retention is average with moderate amounts of irregular lacing.
2.0 S: Light caramel with a strong toastiness. Not really anything in terms of spices.
2.0 T: Same deal but with a touch of spice. Really surprising how bland this is.
3.0 M: Medium body. Perhaps a touch too much carbonation. Not particularly creamy.
2.0 D: Easily the most boring winter warmer I’ve ever had. I’m a big fan of the style, but this doesn’t do it for me.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 02-16-2012 00:26:21
650ml bottle from Route 59 beverage shared with Erica in Brooklyn. Pours a smooth-looking cocoa brown with a pretty substantial white head (small bubbles). Head was probably smaller than it should have been b/c we poured this into wine glasses. Aroma is heavy chocolate, nuts and hops - smells very much like an imperial stout. Palate is a little thin with low carbonation and flavor is nuts, wood and hops. Almost more of a porter in texture.
Bottle @ home. Pours a dark amber appearance with a light tan head. Quite toasty, nutty, brown malty nose. Slightly bitter, a touch coffee and chocolate, toffee, nutty, caramel malty flavor. Nutty, coffee finish and aftertaste.
Reviewed from notes.
Pours a dark red-brown color with an off white head and not too much lacing. The nose is sweet malts, a bit of spice, light fruits, and some caramel. A bit of light chocolate. The taste is pretty bland with a bit of caramel and some very light fruit. Pretty normal body without much going on. Nothing terribly off with this one, it just ends up being a pretty plain beer.
Serving type: bottle
Reviewed on: 11-11-2010
draft @ redlight redlight. Nutty toffee aroma with caramel and hazelnuts. Pours a reddish amber with a thin off white head. Nutty and caramel malts upfront with toffee and an earthy bitterness with hints of coffee and hops. Not bad.
Bomber from Binny’s Orland Park. Pours clear brown with tan head. Aromas of chocolate, toffee, and nutty malts. Flavor is nutty with toffee, light hops, and good dose of chocolate malt. Mouthfeel is a little thin. Decent brown
Pours a slightly cloudy medium brown color. Aroma of hazelnut and toffee with a hint of vanilla and leaves. Flavor is nutty with a slight bitterness and a somewhat dry finish. By the aroma I was expecting more, but the flavor has left me a bit disappointed.
Draft. Pours a dark brown/hazelnut color with a beige head. The aroma is quite musty with some bready malt and spice notes. The flavor is unimpresive at best with a waxy aftertaste that reminds me of Crayola crayons.
Savannah, Ga - Habersham Beverage Warehouse - 22 oz bomber. Iced tea looking pour with a sticky off-white head. Aroma has an earthy quality to it with some black dirt and a hint of nuttiness - but slightly stale. Flavor is kind of worn out, pick up some faint Christmas spices, some black dirt, a hint of chocolate and some nuttiness. Mouthfeel is slightly faded - methinks this is suffering from too long shelf life.
Pours a dark coppery amber with a decent, if not too thick, light beige head. Aroma is not strong but still appealing, mainly malty with hints of spice and miso. Flavor is malty and woody with a spicy undertone, OK if not spectacular. Texture is fairly smooth, fizzy and tingly.
Pours brown with a thin tan head. Light aroma of chocolate, nuts, toffee. Light chocolate in the flavor with a little bit of bitterness. Was hoping for something with a little more spices or flavor for a seasonal. Decent though.
Slightly cloudy, brownish amber pour with a thin offwhite head. Aroma of milk chocolate. Flavor of Quick (coacoa powder to make chocolate milk) and caramel. This is one strange brown ale, it’s clean, but strange.
Sampled from a 22 oz brown bottle this beer poured a red-brown color with a huge orange-tan head. The aroma was toasty cocoa with a fruity presence and a touch of licorice. The flavor was bitter and fruity with notes of cocoa, toast, anise and bourbon. Medium length finish. Medium body. Ok.
Draft at OTH.
Pours amber, off-white head
aroma, lots of roasted goodness, coffeish, malts, grainy, mild nuttiness.
flavor, reminded me a lot of Ft Collins common ground coffee amber, a dry palate, plenty of roast/toast and mild coffee presence. Grainy palate, mild chocolate. Love the balance of mild hop bitterness quickly followed by a good caramel, nutty roasted finish. Overall profile is really favoring the toasted malt side. Tasty.
(bomber from Crown Liquor in Colorado Springs). Clear brown/ruby color. Medium off white head. Light malt aroma. Grainy roasted malt flavor. Avg duration. Smooth finish. Slick texture. Moderate carbonation. Fair lacing.
(Sample Date: 7/12/2009 Source:Other) Bottle by and shared with Butters. Caramelized sugar with hints of dark fruits in aroma. Slightly cloudy dark amber brown. Dark sugar, hints of dark fruit and some nutty woodiness, earthy hops with hints of spice. Finish is dry with very light residual bitterness. Another solid Fort Collins beer.
22 oz. bottle. Shared with Gabe. Pours a light beige, long lasting tiny bubbled head, with fairly extensive lacing. over a clear coppery amber (SRM 12-13) body....nose is light coffee, light chocolate, bit of caramel/toffee.....taste is medium roasted malts, with light coffee, cocoa, bit of nuttiness, finishing with a light to medium hop bitterness.....mouth feel is medium, carbonation slightly high. This is a pleasant, thoroughly drinkable, but not particularly outstanding example of a Brown Ale.