Lagunitas Brown Shugga (365 Day 23)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer on Friday, December 24th, 2010

Lagunitas Brown Shugga

It seems that American craft beer is showing up in bars more regularly these days. Beer bars have a list, similar to wine, of their beer offerings: American and foreign.

Last night the wife said she would pick me up from work with the kids and we could have some dinner in the city (Chicago). I figured Jak’s Tap would be the easiest: we had been there before, has light traffic on Fridays, we all liked the food, and had a decent beer menu.

Now I say decent in terms of the beer menu because I only want American craft beer and that list is maybe 25 beers on tap. Not shabby, but most of these beers are geared towards trying to turn your macro drinkers.

Our server mentioned that Lagunitas Brown Shugga’ was a special at $4.00 a pint for the evening. How could I go wrong as I have never had the beer and beer on tap is darn tasty?

Brown Shugga’ has a heaping helping of brown sugar, malt, and, as I found out in the nose, a delicious helping of citrus and pine hops. The hops come through late in the taste and help to balance. The alcohol, which is at a dangerous 10%, does not even appear anywhere in the beer. Not good when you think how easy this beer is to drink. Enjoy!

Aroma: 9, Taste: 9, Look: 8, Drinkability: 9, Overall: 8.9

Useless Fact: Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale.