Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Family Values Imperial Brown Ale
2016 Beer Camp Across America Collaboration with Schell’s, Dark Horse, Half Acre, Perennial, and Sun King.
Family Values showcases the cooperation and kinship of Midwestern brewers. It features largely Midwestern-grown ingredients: Minnesota wild rice, Indiana honey, Missouri oats, Michigan hops, and cocoa nibs from Illinois as well as Sierra Nevada’s estate-grown malt. This is our centrally located collaboration celebrating the best of the Midwest.
Family Values showcases the cooperation and kinship of Midwestern brewers. It features largely Midwestern-grown ingredients: Minnesota wild rice, Indiana honey, Missouri oats, Michigan hops, and cocoa nibs from Illinois as well as Sierra Nevada’s estate-grown malt. This is our centrally located collaboration celebrating the best of the Midwest.
3.5
206 reviews
Chico, United States
Community reviews
Imperial Browns are hit or miss for me. Found this one to be near top tier for this style. Not super strong...or the alcohol is hidden quite well at least. Mix of flavors such as grains, chocolate/caramel malts, honey, & midwestern hops. Nice balance. Has a semi-creamy, smooth texture with medium density. Dark brown appearance with a frothy off-white head..good lacing too. Only 2 samples in the beercamp mixpack (2nd one grew on me)....but this is a beer I’d look for again.
12 ounce bottle, 5/15/16. Dark brown, large foamy tan head, good retention. Aroma of chocolate, coffee, cherries. The taste is chocolate, nuts, caramel. Medium bodied, smooth.
Bottle. Pours a dark brown with an off white head and nutty, malty aroma. Taste is nutty as well, with sweet malt coming through along with chocolate and oat leading to a sweet, chocolatey finish
Bottle sample at Beer Camp tasting at Beer & Beyond shop. Pours hazy amber brown with a creamy head. Aroma of honey, toasted bread, toffee, caramel and chocolate. Taste is sweet, nuts, caramel, cocoa, spicy, honey, vanilla, quite boozy but complex. Medium-fullbodied, smooth and balanced. Nice.
Bottle sample at a Sierra Nevada Beer Camp tasting at Beer & Beyond, Tel Aviv. Deep brown with beige head. The aroma has notes of raisin, date honey and cocoa, somewhat lactic, some roastiness. The flavor has notes of raisin, honey, date honey, cocoa, very nutty, a bit alcoholic. Oily texture.
Bottle sample at a Sierra Nevada Beer Camp tasting at the Beer & Beyond shop. Brown. Aroma of nuts, caramel. Sweet flavor with caramel, nuts, a bit of honey, light chocolate note. Medium-bodied.
12 oz bottle from Whole Foods-Chelsea. Pours a clear brown color with a mild reddish hue when you hold it to some light. It has a small, beige head, with light, spotty lacing. Has a fairly sweet, roasty aroma. Caramel and honey as well. Not much chocolate for me. Tastes leans sweet without much bitterness. Lighter boded than I expected. Hides the 8.5% really well. Drinks kinda fizzy. It’s a fine beer, but nothing special for me.
Decent beer. Aroma was decent. Roasted malt, peanut shell and green leafy hops. Pour was a nice deep dark brown with a thin off white film for a head. Taste was good and consistent. Same peanut shell and roasted malt flavor that veered off (just a little) into pine sol? Not sure where that came from but it wasn’t strong enough to make the beer unenjoyable. More malt flavors with some earthiness in the finish. Medium carbonation
Bottle. Packaged on: 04/05/16. A mahogany pour with tons of floaties and a thick dark khaki head. Rich caramel, vanilla, honey, bananas, booze, and some nuttiness in the aroma. Medium-bodied on the way down. Lots of caramel and honey upfront in the taste. Vanilla and bananas follow. Bready. A tad dry and grainy at the end. A good bit of alcohol warmth throughout. Not bad at all.
Light caramel and some roast. Dark brown pour with ok head. Light sweet finish. Bottle.
Poured into a shaker glass. Dark cola brown with thin tan head. Aroma is sweet and chocolatey with roasted malt. Flavor is similar. Medium bodied. Decent but not very complex.
12 ounce bottle
A single of each Sierra Nevada release gives me all the context I need on this year’s package. Sometimes it is possible to have too many chefs in the kitchen. Rather than partnering with five breweries I think this might have been better with just one. As it is the strengths of each mask the rest and create a middle of the road experience.
Aroma / Appearance - A soft black base and dense ivory head make this part porter and part hop bomb. Chocolate brownies, soft malts, and spice bloom above a foundation of bitterness.
Flavor / Palate - Malt balls meld with overdone brownies. Hints of Sun King’s prowess are most evident but in general this comes across as an average malt driven release with a moderately bitter finish. The intensity of the ABV distracts from what could have been a pleasant experience. This was not a total waste but I would not want to sit on another three or four.
One of the best brown ales I have ever had. This one is sweet, light bitter notes, spicy notes from vanilla and cocoa nibs, it also has a light cinnamon taste to it. I read there is wild rice in it, which might explain that kind of gritty feel but it’s a great brown ale!
Pours a rich mahogany brown with a ephemeral Java head. Nose is sweet malt with some caramel . Taste is upfront alcohol with sweet malty candied caramel . Finishes on the same ’ brown ’ malty sugary notes with the alcohol finish . Quaff Score 7 / 10
Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark brown color with a medium sized foamy tan head that left minimal lacing. The aroma was sweetish, toasty, woody and malty with a bit of dark fruit. The flavor was bitter and dryish with toasty and woody notes, a hint of cocoa, pretzel and some booziness. Long finish. Medium body. Ok.
Bottle. Deep black color with a hint of brown. Malty boozy with a nutty taste. Pretty good
12 oz bottle from the six type sampler case. The case was expensive but worth it. This will go down as one of the best "browns" ever -- don’t miss out on a chance to try one.
Comes off like an imperial porter, nut brown with boozy malt aroma and sweetish malt taste. Bourbon aftertaste grows harsher as the beer warms.
Heavy nutty brown hue under a spotty and bubbly light beige head. Semisweet nutty aroma full of almond and brown malt and a earthy grassy bitterness. Flavor is the same, just boozy and brown malty, earthy, a bit of nutty malt, a fair dose of English grassy bitterness, and a dryish earthy finish. Meh.
Bottle from D&Q - The Beer Station, Houston. It pours darkest brown with a small beige head. The aroma is rich, very sweet, cookie dough, plain chocolate, perfumed, honey, toasty brown bread, millionaires shortbread and toasted nuts. The taste is bitter - sweet initially, then mostly sweet, toasted nuts, roasted malt, chocolate syrup, burnt brown toast, boozy hit, very sugary, nut, earth, leather, mild astringency and drying wood with a very drying finish. Medium - full body, moderate carbonation and sticky mouth - feel. A found this tough going - both very sweet and then dry.
Pours semi-opaque nut brown with a creamy, 1-finger bone-colored head. Nutty malt aroma mixed with a note of cocoa. Body is medium-to-full, smooth, with a touch of oil. Long finish with a light astringency. Nutty malt flavor with a light sweetness. Also a bit of grain, and some cocoa at the back.
PRobably the best of th whole series. NICe and thick. with a lot of strong feature sin th taste and fine aroma.
Thanks altonbrownd for the bottle!
Bottle into a shaker showing translucent brown rims with white foam around the rims.
The nose shows not much of anything.
The palate is light bodied and fully carbonated. Immediately shows burnt flavors around the edges; upon warming up, very light (closer to imagined) flavors of molasses and honey show up. Mid-palate shows very slight caramel. Burnt flavors on the finish. Not a fan.
Another fine Beer Camp entry. Drinks more like a porter than a brown, which is fine by me. Toasted caramel malt, not too sweet, smooth creamy finish.
Draft. Pours very dark brown with tan head. Brown sugar aroma with subtle chocolate notes. Bready malt, chocolate, and honey.
Slightly-syrupy coffee and cocoa aromas.
Bottles from Highlands
9-6-16
This one tastes just a bit off to me. It is overall a nice but slightly oxidized strong brown porter-ish brew but there is a strange grassy off-note floating around in there which I really find distracting. It’s drinkable overall though, a bit heavy and lacking carbonation and bitterness in the finish but nothing too bad. Still, not exactly a fantastic experience.
Bottle in the fridge clearing project... Pours clear deep brown with a decent enough head... Smells like milk chocolate essence and sorta nutty .. sweetness helps carry all the elements and gel the hops... Tasty... A little water for 8.5%.
12 oz bottle- Pours very dark brown to black with a nice tan head that holds. The aroma is chocolatey, milk duds, some dark berries. The taste is again chocolate, vanilla, getting the honey, it imparts a nice smoothness, sweet without being too sweet, caramel, oats. Enjoying this one, great flavors here, and hides the abv nicely.
Bottle:
Dark, reddish-brown with a thick, dark tan head.
Chocolate, caramel, vanilla scent.
Taste is sweet, caramel malt, oatmeal, cocoa.
Nice chewy body...creamy...very good herbal/woody bitter finish.