I wouldn’t have known that Brown Shugga is presented as Lagunitas‘ Chirstmas beer, but this is the time of year they sent me one to sample. Their website calls it their “winter seasonal” And the red and green on its label solidify the idea. So here it is.
Brown Shugga is one of those beers in which a batch with a mistake turns out to be better than expected. If you know Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale story, you likely know how a Lagunitas brewer botched a batch of their Old Gnarlywine, but owner Tony Magee told the brewer to save by dumping in brown sugar to get it up to the needed original gravity of 1.100. But the different fermentable gave the beer a different taste, and thus Brown Shugga was born. There’s an alternate holiday beer, made when their brewing capacity couldn’t make enough Brown Shugga; called Lagunitas Sucks, but that’s another release.
Even in the minutes it took to snap and upload the picture above, the smell of brown sugar remained strong with this one. The pour is caramel brown malt under a foamy head. Bubbles in the tulip glass rise slowly, like the brew is too thick for them to handle.
The taste is indeed very sweet, although in this fresh bottle, there is still a backing of hops, perhaps more English than northwestern. The mouthfeel is only slightly thicker, it turns out, than regular beer, but well within barley wine range. Despite having 9.7% alcohol by volume, they describe this beer as “slammable,” and I have to admit the alcohol is very well hidden. It finishes with just a bit of hop afterburn, and leaves the lips nice and sticky.
Lagunitas suggests serving this with any dessert made with pumpkin pie spice, but I think we don’t want to hear about that right now. Maybe try setting this as a palate cleanser after dinner, and put off dessert for an hour or so. Catch up with whatever game is on.
