Man's Best Friend

Sometimes when I sit down to write the blog post o' the day I get quite distracted. I usually crack open the brew, take some pics, and check out their webpage. At that point one of two things happens: 1) I figure out what I think of beer and start writing, or 2) I wander on to 37 different other things on the internet. Today it was the latter situation. I've been sitting here for almost an hour and just got down to business.

As I mentioned yesterday I got the chance to drink a brand new beer today. Right now I'm sippin' on an Ellie's Brown Ale from Avery Brewing. If you know anything about me, you should know that I love dogs and have wanted to get a chocolate lab for the longest time. It just so happens that just such a dog is featured on the label of this beer. It also just so happens that I couldn't not get this one because of said dog. Turns out that this one is actually named after one of the founder's late chocolate lab, named Ellie.

When I asked my local craft beer guru about this one he had very good things to say about it. Something along the lines of, "That's a REALLY good beer." I obliged, and I agree. The thing that strikes me as the best quality of this one is it's drinkability. No -- not like that 'beer' with the commercials making the same claim. Ellie's is just really smooth, not too sweet, not too malty, but just right. Pretty sure I said one of my previous beer had a "goldilocks" thing going on. This one falls into that category.

You can taste some brown sugar and vanilla flavors in this beer. I can see myself drinking this with a good pulled pork sandwich. Or maybe afterwards to finish off the meal. I'm not going to say this is a full on dessert beer, but I think that it is mellow enough that it could be enjoyed by a wide variety of people.

Over the past few months I have seen Avery Brewing on the shelves from time to time but I really don't know much about them. Based on this brew I think they're going to have a solid line up. I've got some plans for the next couple of weeks but very soon I will circle back to these guys and try another one.

Avery Brewing
Ellie's Brown Ale
Brown Ale
5.5% abv
"Lab tested."