Clown Shoes Let My People Go

Sorry we've been remiss in reviewing beers lately; we limped toward the finish line of summer, straggling toward that first day of school. That day was today, and I'm candidly surprised I didn't start drinking at 8:20 this morning, after the kiddo got on the bus.

This is a brew from Clown Shoes, a brewery based out of Massachusetts, one that we can't get here in Ohio. I'm not quite sure why not, as we picked this up in Illinois, but distributing logic often escapes me. We've enjoyed the titles of Clown Shoes' offerings whenever we have visited, but this is the first one we've picked up. It's an English-style pale ale, so let's see how it goes. This was a one-off batch/limited release from them.

It pours a hazy dark amber color with almost a flesh-tone head. The aroma is heavy on the malts, with orange and caramel being prevalent, with some underpinnings of other tropical fruits and grass. It tastes like some dark stone fruits, maybe some raisins, and some fermented tropical fruit, almost like mango that's been cut open and left in the fridge too long. There are also some biscuit flavors and there's a lot of brown sugar underneath the entire sip. It's pretty heavy-bodied, and try as I might, I just cannot picture sitting in a pub in England enjoying this (I know, it's made in Massachusetts. But it's an English-style pale ale).

Candidly, I'm really not enjoying this at all. I despise raisins, so that's definitely part of it. I feel that this isn't a great pale ale. It's mediocre and it tastes like raisins. Blech. Maybe if I liked raisins better, I wouldn't be so ishy on this. I wish we would have started off with one of their stouts, which are much better rated.

3.2/5 caps

-Jennie

Wow... Um, how do I follow that up? I will say, I love the names of Clown Shoes' brews. This is our first exposure to them and I hope my experience is better than Jennie's. I've had time to let mine warm up more (freshly shaven and showered), so let's give this a go.

Sitting in the pint glass throughout the shower, there's still about a half finger worth of maple colored head to off set the deep hazy brown ale look of the brew. The aroma is is wee-bit on the sweeter side. Ah, hell, who am i kidding, it's a very sweet aroma. Malty, malty, malty. Caramel and dark stone fruit at this point. The flavor is... unique. It's spice, toasted malts, biscuit, and brown sugar toward the front, followed with some mushy tropical fruit, brown sugar, hint of raisin, and brown sugar. Heavy body for sure with a sweet sort of stickiness left on the mouth after the sugary concoction goes down the throat. Not much carbonation to speak of, but not flat.

I can, actually, finish my half of the bottle. The best way I can sum this up is a pumpkin beer, but use stone fruit instead of pumpkin. The 6% ABV is deceiving with how heavy bodied it is.

3.5/5 caps

-Nathan